Shirley Valentine

Never seen the play? Never seen the movie? Happen to be in Wexford in late July and August?

Well, pop into the Jerome Hynes Theatre
Wexford Opera House
Wexford
Southern Ireland
between July 28 - Aug 8 2009
and you get the chance to see our very own Nicola Hollinshead in this one woman show. She's done it before, and this is what they said two years ago:

'Willy Russell has the knack of creating strong women, and never more effectively than in SHIRLEY VALENTINE, in which the eponymous heroine has the only role. But it also plays host to many others, to Shirley's family, neighbours and acquaintances. She contains multitudes, coming vividly alive through the extensions of ther self to them...Nicola Hollinshead, directed by Ronan Wilmot, gives the performance of any actor's life, seducing the audience from the start with a highly individual blend of character, comic observation and self-analysis. She starts out as an angular denzien of a working class estate, whose main escape is literally talking to the wall. After her Grecian apothesis, she has morphed into a serene, beautiful woman of independent character. The process is called acting and it is a delight to experience here'.. Gerry Colgan, The Irish Times, Aug 6 2007

'You will rarely see a better solo performance than Nicola Hollinshead gives in this very funny, beautifully observed and occasionally moving one-woman play by Willy Russell'. Hollinshead loses nothing in comparison with the original screen Shirley Pauline Collins. She can illuminate a story with the simplest gesture as she physically becomes Shirley Valentine'.... *****Michael Moffatt, The Irish Mail on Sunday, July 29 2007

'the accomplished performance of Nicola Hollinshead as Shirley Bradshaw will have your memory of Collins fading as quickly as the memory of last year's sundrenched holiday'...On a barely set stage, Hollinshead takes on this epic struggle for freedom with gusto, offering us a less pointed, more uncertain Shirley than Collins, and it's not long before she has the (pre-dominantly female) audience emotionally entangled in a story that becomes the quest for selfhoood. Hollinshead's portrayal, coupled with the intimacy of The New Theatre, ensures we feel the full gamut of Shirley's emotional life: the painful ennui of urban existence; the raw humour derived from the urgency to 'get through'; the joy and simplicity of finding a happy life'... ****Stephen Mulkearn, Irish Metro, Aug 1 2007 '.

"...and Hollinshead is compelling, despite the familiarity of the material. She has a sure grip on Shirley's feisty, self-deprecating persona, and convincingly segues between coarse humour and touching pathos, giving voice to Russell's poetry of the venacular..." Declan Burke, Irish Sunday Times, July 29 2007

There are currently very cheap flights on Ryanair, says Niki, and she'll even buy you a Guinness!

Here are the details.