A story of abandoned dreams and monotonous marriage, yet full of charm and airy wit.
Mind you, only in Hungarian language, without subtitled projection.
The Liverpool housewife in the middle-age working class life has stagnated. The story of Mrs Joe Bradshaw, before and after a transforming holiday to Greece. Yet, inside Mrs. Joe Bradshaw who is the former Shirley Valentine longing to emerge.
Her self-esteem battered by school, marriage and life in general, she finds herself talking to the wall while her husband is out working. She feels that her life is terribly mundane as she compares scenes in her current life with what she used to be like and feels Liverpudlian bored.
When her best friend invites her to an all-expenses paid vacation to Greece with her, Shirley at first is uncertain whether she will go and what will happen to those left at home, then after she convince herself and grasps the opportunity to head for the sun and leave her current drudgery behind, to follow her dreams and to get a new lease on life. She leaves a note in the kitchen that reads “Gone to Greece, back in two weeks”. Shirley breaking out of the mold in which she was cast by society.
Móni Balsai was an excellent choice of incarnation to Shirley Valentine-Bradshaw. Her superb acting represents many people in the audience who can recognize themselves and/or also have met friends or family of members of those in the theater on the same side of the road.
The play is filled with much humor, warmth, sym-pathy, human insight and a great deal of empathy for Shirley the protagonist.
Playwriter Willy Russell’s 1986 story is comic and manologue , that has received a variety of awards and was made into an Oscar nominated film which is more than 30 years old, but has not aged a day. Russell tailored his play into sensitivity, compassion, sense of humor and understanding of working class lives and their stories.
The play was translated and staged by Ujj Mészáros Károly who reflects both the English text and absolutely brings up-to-date the freshness of the Hungarian language spoken today. Set design by Anna Fekete – Costume by Enikő Kárpáti.
A must see play that will be floating in your mind for sometime.
Tickets on the spot Centrál Theater – District, VI. 18, Révai Str. Budapest
Riport by Aggie Reiter
Rolling in Budapest 