Shirley Valentine's Gone to Greece: Sonoma County Actress Brings Everyday Folk Heroine to Life

Folk heroes and heroines - fictional or real - are everywhere every day.  It is the every day quality of these people doing extraordinary things during the course of their lives that appeal to us. We want to know who they are and how they have overcome obstacles that might, at first glance, appear to be impossible to get around or through.

The  journeys these people take show us how they returned to their own cultural/societal wisdoms to offset challenges. They were brave in the face of tremendous fear, they were earnest and hardworking in their efforts to offset injustice and/or they were guided by creativity and inspiration to delve deep within for the answers they sought.

 This is the stuff of folktales; the messages,  lessons and values that every day people bring to the task of living 'normal' lives. These are not super heroes or super heroines as one would expect to find in legends and fairy tales. Nor are they supra-naturally endowed with powers like the characters and personalities who inhabit myths. They are you and they are me. They are us at our best.

And just who are we?

Let's start with Shirley Valentine. She is a fictional character I recently came across while reading about Cinnabar Theater's upcoming production, Shirley Valentine's Gone to Greece.  

This one-woman show (May 27-June 12) written by Willy Russell and performed by Mary Gannon Graham shows us the journey Shirley, a typical British middle-aged, working class housewife, takes while on a vacation to a far away place.

The discoveries and challenges of that journey - a journey any of us can take -  are at the heart of this theatrical presentation. 

I had an opportunity to ask Mary Gannon Graham a few questions about her character. Here are some of her responses:

Q: Shirley Valentine is ‘every woman’; a middle aged working class housewife who finds herself in Greece. Her life becomes an adventure. The journey provides opportunities for her to discover something very important about herself and the world she lives in. What drives her to embark upon this journey?

A: Ever since she was a girl she wanted to travel, she dreamed of being an Air Hostess or a Courier, but she's married to a man who doesn't like to travel so when her friend Jane gives her the opportunity of getting away for a fortnight, it's almost too good to be true.

Q: What does she learn? And how does (or does it) change her in any way? Could she has experienced this while staying home (in England)?

A: She learns to like herself again, she learns that she really is a brave, marvelous sexy woman who's not to old to have another adventure. She also learns that nothing is ever how we envision it to be, but that if we're open to possibilities, it can be so much more than we expected. I don't believe Shirley could have experienced what she did if she had stayed in England. Her life at home had grown stagnant, routine and in many ways she felt trapped. She needed an entirely new surrounding to have the experiences that she had. She lost herself in the caring of others and became someone she didn't recognize anymore, in getting away from her home she reclaimed her individuality again, her sense of self and self worth. Realizing she was more than a wife and mother and next door neighbor, she was Shirley Valentine!

Q: What does Greece – a foreign/far away country-represent in this performance?

A: I think it represents a new beginning, a chance to reclaim who she is, a chance to fulfill a life long dream of traveling.

Q: What relevance does this story line have for today’s theater goers?

A: Shirley talks near the end of the play about life and how the issues are not just about what happens to her and to other women, but how it's the same for all of us, men included. The play is, at its core, about finding yourself in a life that you did not plan for, where you can't remember what happened or how you got there, that it's not what you want anymore, and that the life you could live is still out there, that we can reinvent ourselves at anytime, at any age, to be the people we can and want to be, to live our life large!

Q: Do you think this one-woman show tells/shows us anything about our humanity? If so, what?

A: Yes! It tells us all that we can change, that we have more life in us than we can possibly imagine and that we just need to have faith, take a leap, and be courageous. That we don't need to stay stuck in a life that does not serve us or help us to be our best selves.

Shirley's heroic journey began as a vacation and quickly become more - so much more than that, as is often the case when one is on a journey. Her actions and choices as well as the insights she gleaned about herself and the world will change her world forever. And, that is exactly what the hero/heroine's journey is intended to do.  It is a process that wakes up the traveler and, hopefully, touches the lives of others in ways that are measurable, meaningful, and mysterious!

To read the entire interview visit Folkheart Press