Willy Russell
Bolton Octagon production
Bolton Octagon
February 7-March 8, 2025; 2 hrs 10mins
It takes a brave playwright to contrast Sigmund Freud with buses to Rawtenstall, which is what Willy Russell agreed with actress and rewriter Mina Anwar. With the help of director Lotte Wakeham they manage to pull off the move of Russell's Liverpool setting of Shirley Valentine to Accrington in Lancashire, to great effect.
For the one person who may not have heard of Shirley, the play, set in 1986 by writer Willy Russell,
outlines her voyage of discovery during a trip to Greece,
A one-person show is difficult to review because it seems so personal. If the actor or director is not quite up to it then the criticism is intensely personal. There is no one else to blame when things go wrong. But in Mina Anwar we are in safe hands. She bestrides the stage like a domestic Colossus, berating her absent husband, the world and most impressively her wall- behind which we, the audience, listen, laugh and feel for her.
Mina uses her local Accrington roots to ensure we are with her as she outlines the way in which ordinary life can constrain, defeat and tire even the most robust of us. Though Shirley is a fighter, wiping cold Manchester rain from her face as she struggles to catch her bus can wear one down eventually.
The play makes a virtue of the fact that it is 40 years old. Some of the cultural references may be dated but the essential facts of a life lived within narrow limits are still valid. In the paper today a husband is being charged that for many years he subjected his wife to physical abuse. Plus ca change...
The ideal of gender-blind casting is appealing to some directors; isn’t an actor an actor? But watching Mina doing a monologue for nearly two hours, wiping down the kitchen surfaces and making perfect egg and chips at the same time make us wonder . Simon Russell Beale in the kitchen making a lasagne ? Not sure about that...
For a small amount of money, you too can watch a master at work. And there is a good cafe in which you can, of course, get chips and egg. Whats not to like?
More info and tickets here
