simple description would not. For example, it is easier to keep your attention on a
dynamic play than a speech.
The second is the use of humour. The play is full of humourous references to everyday
things- for example, Shirley says how Joe had better not get the washing machine and the
microwave mixed up or he “might end up with socks on toast”- an example of the cynical
and often sarcastic wordplay used in the play.. This device is used to lighten the mood of
the play- Shirley Valentine can hardly be described as having the most cheerful subject
matter, as it’s about a woman stuck in a dead end life who goes off to find herself and is
left confused. The humour is also used to highlight issues and to collapse stereotypes.
Again, it also helps to keep the audience involved.
The use of language is important in the play. Different sorts of language is used in the
play- for example, when Shirley is talking to or about people like Jane and the
Headmistress, you can see how she uses semi-mocking and sarcastic confessional tones
of voice and language. Conversely, when she talks about her friends, she takes on an
almost happy tone of voice and set of words that show her true feelings- however, when
she tells the Wall she doesn’t see them much anymore her face glazes over with a
“faraway” look on it. She misses them and is very alone, you can tell. The language
therefore is used to portray emotions and feelings, as shown by the above. It is also used
to reinforce the audience’s sense of where Shirley is.
Monologues are used to illustrate facts about Shirley’s life in one way and to allow
freedom of the actress to show her/ the director’s interpretation of the script in another.
The first way is evident as it reinforces Shirley’s loneliness- not many people have a wall
or rock for company, for example. Shirley may try to show that she is happy with this
isolation that she deals with on a daily basis, but it can be seen that she is not really happy
at all with the state of affairs. This is obvious through the way she drifts into a faraway
state when she talks about company or anyone she likes- she misses them. The actress is
also given a certain freedom to interpret the script in these monologues, but it is a
different freedom to that discussed in the paragraph on flashbacks. It is a freedom of
vocal expression rather than of a physical one. The monologues are always kept short
however; if they were too long the audience would lose interest.
Voiceovers convey a sense of being far away in a chronographical sense- a voiceover
could be used as a prelude to a flashback or a monologue, for example. This also would
allow a stage director time to change the props on the stage- a blackout with a voiceover
could effectively mask a change of set. A voiceover also reinforces the idea of Shirley’s
loneliness and isolation. A voiceover could be used while Shirley is going to Greece, for
the events on the plane and inside the airport, as an example.
Confrontation in a play like this is a very useful tool- it allows even more flexibility to
how the play is directed and it also allows humour as a dramatic device to be used. The
main use of confrontation in the play, though, is to highlight important social issues. An
example of this is when Joe and Shirley have the argument about egg and chips. It
highlights the way that most men expected things done by their wives, and if they
weren’t, there was going to be trouble. The way it affects the way the play is directed is
that it can grab the audience’s attention- after the series of long monologues and
flashbacks, the writer uses an argument to get back the attention of the audience.
Stereotypes and their collapsed versions are a view that someone has of a group of
people: an example of a stereotype is “all Jamaicans are chilled out”. They are used to
provide another facility for humour, to highlight issues and to maintain audience
attention. Issues highlighted include the unfair way people treat others. This is done in
one case (Marjorie’s) by letting the audience assume that someone is very ‘posh’ by
showing her in a nice hotel with a maid to pour their tea, and then telling the audience
that she is ‘a hooker’. The collapsed stereotype would not really work without the
reinforcing of the stereotype in the first place. This is because the audience need to have
their preconceptions built up- it wouldn’t be much use to just show Marjorie talking to
Shirley in a normal Liverpudlian accent confessing that she is a prostitute, for example.
Collapsed stereotypes address issues by breaking down the idea of ‘castes’ of people that
are so easily made in this way.
After this we meet a character called Gillian. She is a stereotypical middle class woman
who lives in a nice house and has nice clothes. She is very up with the trends- she is a
vegan. Shirley replies to this with the humourous comment “Oh. I thought you were still
Church of England”. This would amuse the audience, and this highlights the class divide
between the rich and the working class, as does the fact that Gillian only feeds her dog (a
bloodhound) muesli. Shirley finds this incomprehensible and feeds the dog her steak that
she got for Joe’s tea. This leads to the play’s main confrontation.
When Joe gets in from work, to find egg and chips on the table, he is outraged. “Egg and
chips?”, he exclaims “…I am not eating this… this s***. It’s a Thursday, not a Tuesday.”
This highlights the way that some men acted like they had Aspergers syndrome when it
came to routine. If something wasn’t the way they thought it should be, they were
incredulous and you would know about it straight away. Another dramatic device is then
used- the humour. Shirley says how she’s going to Greece. Joe is again incredulous.
“Greece? Wha’d’ya want to go there for? You have all you need here.” This highlights
how little Joe knows about Shirley’s life. He seems to think that Shirley was born to do
work for him. This highlights the sexism and chauvinism show by most English men in
the play.
The next person we meet (in a flashback) is Shirley’s daughter, and it is another
confrontation By having two confrontations in such close proximity Russell highlights
how turbulent Shirley’s home life is getting.
Shirley’s daughter, Millandra, simply turns up and basically expects to be waited on hand
and foot. She doesn’t allow Shirley to get a word in edgeways and goes to her room and
lies down in her bed. When Shirley brings up her cup of tea for Millandra, she talks to
Millandra about going to Greece. Millandra simply responds as her father did. “I think
it’s disgusting.”, she says and walks out with her bags. Shirley shouts out the window
after her “Oh yes Millandra, we’re going to have a great time. Sex for breakfast, sex for
lunch and sex for dinner- it’s going to be great”- this would make the audience laugh and
take the edge off an important issue- the homophobia of people and general failure to
accept others for who they are.
Shirley gets her stuff packed for Greece and off she goes. However, before she does, she
has second thoughts about it- effectively Shirley Valentine, the rebellious teenager side of
her personality, has a confrontation with Shirley Bradshaw, the housewife side of her.
Eventually, she plucks up the courage and leaves.
We see Shirley on the plane to Greece, and the “great feminist” Jane, the very same
woman who views every man as a potential rapist and caught her husband in bed with the
milkman is collapsing her stereotype by going off with a man “to press his olives”. So,
when Shirley gets to her hotel, she is alone. She is alone at dinner that night too, so a
Mancunian couple invite her over to eat with them. This shows how difficult people find
it to watch a woman on her own. The man of the couple asks the waiter what the calamari
is, and gives the waiter a hard time, highlighting the theme of racism “It is a feesh”, the
waiter says. “Eet was caught this morning on my brothers boat….”.
“What is this… this… ”, the man asks again, just as Joe did in back in England. Shirley
replies “It’s an octopus.”. With comedic and humourous slowness, the woman slides
under the table, in a faint.
Then, Shirley goes out to a nearby taverna, by the sea. She talks to Costas, the waiter,
about putting a table by the sea. He agrees, saying “Yes I will. It is your, dream, and now
I can say I made someone’s dream come true”. Shirley goes down to the beach and sits at
the table. She engages in a monologue. “I thought it would be the best thing in the world.
But it’s not how I thought it would be. Its just not…. right.”. This highlights how dreams
do not always turn out the way you think they will, and how often they are not as good in
reality as they are in your head. Shirley goes back up to the taverna and Costas asks her
to come out on his brothers boat the next day. Shirley says she will.
It’s now morning. Shirley is in her hotel room, when Jane suddenly returns. Shirley
confronts her about the feminist she was and, just like the headmistress, Jane reacts
defensively to someone she thinks is inferior. In the middle of the argument, Costas
knocks at the door. Jane greets him with a question. “Hello? Room service, are you?”
(more racism). Costas asks Shirley if she is coming out on the boat, and she says yes. She
leaves Jane in a muddle in the hotel room and leaves her questions, and swimming
costume as it turns out, behind. Costas and Shirley do, as it turns out, end up ‘making
fok’ on the boat, and Shirley thinks she has fallen in love with Costas. It turns out that she
hasn’t, but has fallen in love with Greece. She doesn’t go back on the plane with Jane,
and Joe is left standing at the airport with a bunch of flowers and an expectant look on his
face, looking forlorn and lost. It highlights how much some men need their wives,
without ever noticing it. We last see Shirley on the beach again except happy this time,
imagining Joe coming to collect her. She has found Shirley Valentine; for her Greece has
been a voyage of self discovery.
In conclusion, Willy Russell makes excellent use of dramatic devices in the play “Shirley
Valentine”. He knows exactly how to push the audience’s buttons on the humourous,
emotional and subconscious levels. He used dramatic devices very effectively to send out
a message- that one day, no matter what the odds, most people find who they really are,
and how badly people can treat others whether accidentally or on purpose.
Bibliography
Shirley Valentine, by Willy Russell.