Shirley Valentine on the other hand was written as a film script, by the author Willy Russell in the 1980’s, but the story is very similar to that of Billy Liar. Shirley is a housewife and mother to two grown up children. Her husband Joe is very insensitive and unaffectionate. Shirley’s best friend Jane invites Shirley to spend two weeks with her in Greece on holiday. Like Billy, Shirley wants very much to escape her mundane and structure lifestyle, but is apprehensive, after a row with Joe she is determined to go. Shirley leaves without informing Joe and leaves him to fend for himself for two weeks. On the plane Jane meets a man and goes off with him leaving Shirley on her own. Slowly Shirley rediscovers herself and meets a bar owner called Costas who she has an affair with. By the end of the two weeks Shirley does not want to leave and makes the decision to stay behind in Greece and get a job. Joe on the other hand wants her back but she refuses, and in the last scene of the play we see that Joe makes the effort and goes out to Greece to win Shirley back.
Because both scripts are designed for different purposes the dialogue in each one is very different. In Billy Liar the dialogue is quite lengthy and quite adult, proper and formal in the way it is constructed. This would be down to the time at which it was written. In the 1960’s the Lord Chancellor was very tough on censorship. Any swearing or even slightly risqué images were changed or censored completely. The strongest word used within the play is probably ‘bloody’ which Geoffrey says a lot and even this, is a bit ‘close to the bone’. Whereas when Shirley Valentine was written there was not such a strong censorship law. In Shirley Valentine there is a lot of risqué language and many sexual innuendoes. The dialogue is a also very brief, there is no need for such long and perfectly formed sentences because the visuals give us the information, for example there are many close-up’s of Shirley which give us the understanding which you cannot get in theatre. Also because of this extra medium the audience feels much closer to Shirley as we are let into her most intermit thoughts and feelings its much more personal, and because of this we are much more inclined to be sympathetic towards Shirley.
The endings are similar but different. Both Shirley and Billy have the chance to escape their situation and begin again, if they can muster up the courage, and this is where Billy and Shirley are different. Shirley takes this chance and decides to stay in Greece, but Billy can not go through with this act of rebellion. In the last scene of both plays we are left to anticipate what happens next. Shirley and Joe are sitting together at a table on a beach with the sunset behind them, this gives the audience some hope, even though Joe was the enemy to begin with we feel happy that he has come to get her because we all know deep down they love each other. We are sympathetic to Shirleys’ situation and we care about what happens to her, we feel sorry when she’s left on her own but glad when she meets Costas, the audience relates well to Shirley. Where on the other hand Billy is a lot harder to relate to. We she him come back at the end of the play and unpack his suitcase placing the calendars back into the sideboard cupboard. This gives the impression that he can never escape, and the audience feels sorry for Billy because of this but we also feel a lot more detached from Billy. Billy had the chance but didn’t take it, he was not brave enough, but he also left Liz at the train station having brought the tickets for the both of them. Billy is still very naive and obviously still is not sure what he wants.
Another comparison we can make is through the characters Joe and Geoffrey. Both are very strong and narrow-minded businessmen. They have no consideration for the feelings of others; they are chauvinistic, antagonistic and brusque. But in the end we see that Joe is starting to ‘come round’ and we love him for it but Geoffrey on the other hand is still just as stubborn. This behaviour reflects in the actions of Shirley and Billy.
So in conclusion I think both of the plays offers very different things but also have striking similarities.