What is Shirley Valentine?
{{About|the play|the 1989 film based on the play|Shirley Valentine (film)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}} {{Use British English|date=November 2019}} {{Infobox play | name = Shirley Valentine | image = | image_size = | caption = | writer = [[Willy Russell]] | genre = [[Comedy]]<br>[[Monodrama]] | setting = | subject = A holiday in Greece refreshes an unhappy middle aged Liverpool housewife in more ways than one | premiere = 1986 | place = [[Everyman Theatre, Liverpool|Everyman Theatre]]<br>[[Liverpool]] | orig_lang = English }} '''''Shirley Valentine''''' is a one-character play by [[Willy Russell]].<ref name=NY>{{cite web|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=THEATER; One Woman's Fling In 'Shirley Valentine'|first=Alvin|last=Klein|date=24 April 1994|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/24/nyregion/theater-one-woman-s-fling-in-shirley-valentine.html}}</ref><ref name=NYT>{{cite web|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=Shirley Valentine (1989) Review/Film; Shirley Valentine Talks With Others|first=Caryn|last=James|date=30 August 1989|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=950DE7D61F3AF933A0575BC0A96F948260}}</ref> It takes the form of a [[monologue]] by a middle-aged, [[working class]] [[Liverpool]] [[housewife]]. It focuses on her life before and after a transforming holiday abroad. ==Plot== Shirley finds herself regularly alone and talking to the wall. She prepare an evening meal of egg and chips for her emotionally distant husband. Her best friend offers to pay for a trip-for-two to [[Greece]]. She leaves a note on the cupboard door in the kitchen. In Greece she rediscovers what she had been missing in England. She is so happy that she decides not to return. She leaves her friend at the airport and goes back to the hotel. She asks for a job.<ref>[http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/shirley-valentine-one-for-the-road-9781408160954/ Bloomsbury Publishing: ''Shirley Valentine & One For The Road''] blommsbury.com</ref> ==Productions== Commissioned in 1986, by the [[Everym