Mrs. Smith leads a childish life, without the illusions of yesteryear and monotonous. She is a 48-year-old mother with two grown children who talks to the kitchen wall as she prepares dinner for her husband. However, within her awakens Shirley Valentine, her alter ego, who dreams of a different life, far from there, from his marriage, from the boredom of the day to day. A feminist friend invites her on a trip to Greece and, after thinking about it many times, Shirley takes the opportunity this trip will give her to find a different life, perhaps even herself.
That is the argument of I love shirley valentine, a story narrated like a monologue by Mrs. Smith, who arrives next Saturday, November 13 at the Teatro Leal, in La Laguna, and whose origin dates back to 1986, when Willy Russell conceived the character, played by Mari Carmen Sánchez. The actress, who has lived in the Canary Islands since she was little, says she knows “many Shirleys Valentines”, since the work is, as she describes, “the reality of many women of the time”.
In this sense, the interpreter considers that although the current situation of women has changed a lot compared to the past, the work “is still necessary today”, due to the empowerment that it supposes in itself, although it also indicates that men can be seen reflected in Shirley, since “sometimes, people live a life that they do not want.”
The theatrical representation, with Juan José Afonso in the direction, is a mixture of humor and tenderness about the understanding of human beings to delve into how Mrs. Smith comes out of her shell, abandons the role that society has imposed on her and transforms on Shirley Valentine. The play premiered last June in Gran Canaria.
Tickets can be purchased at this web.
