Shirley Valentine returns to the Gaiety theatre next week before departing to three more locations around the country later in the spring. As star of this one woman show, Norma Sheahan says: “Need a girl’s night out? Need to take your mind off the menopause? Well stop talking to the wall and join me for a night of female fun!”
It was this production that reopened Dublin’s Gaiety after the COVID-19 lockdowns, selling out the then-allowed 60% capacity, and returned six months later to sell out again. Cork’s Norma Sheahan tells Irish Country Living “it is a part of a lifetime” and she has relished breathing new life into Shirley as they have been touring around Ireland.
The weight of unused life
“Every woman between the ages of 15 and 95 gets something from it. It is really about finding a purpose and liberating yourself and getting out there and having the craic,” says Norma.
“Shirley said a lot of people die long before they are dead and she said what kills them is the terrible weight of all the unused life we carry around. Even her poor husband is weighed down; he had fun, he had talent and he carries all this misery around with him in the form of unused hopes and dreams. Everyone has a little tear during the show whether it is for regrets or hopes but it definitely gives people a lease of life by the end of it.”
While the film Shirley Valentine will be memorable to those who watched Pauline Collins throw fried eggs at the kitchen wall or how she took to the sunshine in Greece, Sheahan fills us in on some theatrical history. “Shirley Valentine the play was there before the film,” she says. “It won awards such as the Laurence Olivier for best actress and best new comedy. It is a piece of fantastic writing; it is a masterpiece.”
Catch Norma Sheahan in the one-woman 'Shirley Valentine' next week at the Gaiety Theatre
The person who created Shirley Valentine, Liverpudlian Willy Russell, worked with Sheahan, who is co-producing with Michael Scott to make this production more personal to Irish audiences.
Sheahan put her foot down: “I set it in Cork. We said we would try it and it worked. Also, back in the day we all thought Shirley was a bit auld, but she is actually only 42. The thing now is 50 is the new 40 so I changed her age slightly because nobody could relate to a 42-year-old having teenagers when 42-year-olds are only having babies these days.”
Precision, precision
Describing working with Russell on a Zoom call, place names and local landmarks had to be replaced to keep words to the same syllables.
“He would pick a word that would be the right number of beats for the sentence. So, to change the script around, to localise it for our audiences, it has to be ticked off by him,” says Norma.
“It means Irish people can relate to it more because it is an Irish person talking about being low rather than someone putting on a staged accent. People have come back two and three times. I know one lady came to see it with her friends, then she came back with her daughter and the latest was she brought her husband to see it.”
Does this mean that Sheahan managed to convince Willy Russell that this Shirley Valentine would be happy to take off to the likes of Cape Clear rather than sunny Mykonos?
“She does go to Greece but we just made the place names more local, like ‘Ah the husband is useless; he’d get jet lag if he went to Killarney’ rather than saying, ‘He wouldn’t even go to Wales, he’d get jet-lag.’”
And how does a farmer’s daughter from Whitechurch end up adapting a world-famous play?
“My mum was great. Once we did the Leaving Cert, we weren’t allowed study in Cork. She made us put other counties down on the CAO form so we had to go to college outside of Cork, all five of us. She forced us to leave, which was brilliant really. I went to UCD to do commerce and while there, I spent time with the drama society [Dramsoc] and after the degree I went on to drama school in London. I’ve done a few things in the past, they all stand to you, everything stands to you really doesn’t it?”
Norma Sheahan is Shirley Valentine running next week at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin. Headshot of Norma Sheahan
It wasn’t just any drama school Norma found herself attending. The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) is a highly regarded training ground for theatre, recognised the world over. Sharing her Shirley Valentine news with RADA classmates, many reminisced that it was their audition piece for drama school.
Shirley Valentine might be finishing in Ireland this spring but Norma Sheahan will remember bringing this much-loved character to the theatres of Ireland. “The character gets in to you and her message is all about being alive. When the husband says ‘Oh I heard about your holiday romance’ she goes, ‘The only holiday romance I‘ve had is with myself and d’you know what? I think I like myself.’”
Show dates
‘Shirley Valentine’ returns to the Gaiety Theatre with seven performances only from 24 – 28 January 2023. Tickets from €19 (including booking fee) on sale now from www.ticketmaster.ieShows also at:
Theatre Royal, Waterford 16 February.Pavilion Theatre Dún Laoghaire, 8 April.The Lime Tree Theatre, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick 22 April. Read more
The town of Abbeyfeale bares much more than the essentials
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Shirley Valentine returns to the Gaiety theatre next week before departing to three more locations around the country later in the spring. As star of this one woman show, Norma Sheahan says: “Need a girl’s night out? Need to take your mind off the menopause? Well stop talking to the wall and join me for a night of female fun!”
It was this production that reopened Dublin’s Gaiety after the COVID-19 lockdowns, selling out the then-allowed 60% capacity, and returned six months later to sell out again. Cork’s Norma Sheahan tells Irish Country Living “it is a part of a lifetime” and she has relished breathing new life into Shirley as they have been touring around Ireland.
The weight of unused life
“Every woman between the ages of 15 and 95 gets something from it. It is really about finding a purpose and liberating yourself and getting out there and having the craic,” says Norma.
“Shirley said a lot of people die long before they are dead and she said what kills them is the terrible weight of all the unused life we carry around. Even her poor husband is weighed down; he had fun, he had talent and he carries all this misery around with him in the form of unused hopes and dreams. Everyone has a little tear during the show whether it is for regrets or hopes but it definitely gives people a lease of life by the end of it.”
While the film Shirley Valentine will be memorable to those who watched Pauline Collins throw fried eggs at the kitchen wall or how she took to the sunshine in Greece, Sheahan fills us in on some theatrical history. “Shirley Valentine the play was there before the film,” she says. “It won awards such as the Laurence Olivier for best actress and best new comedy. It is a piece of fantastic writing; it is a masterpiece.”
Catch Norma Sheahan in the one-woman 'Shirley Valentine' next week at the Gaiety Theatre
The person who created Shirley Valentine, Liverpudlian Willy Russell, worked with Sheahan, who is co-producing with Michael Scott to make this production more personal to Irish audiences.
Sheahan put her foot down: “I set it in Cork. We said we would try it and it worked. Also, back in the day we all thought Shirley was a bit auld, but she is actually only 42. The thing now is 50 is the new 40 so I changed her age slightly because nobody could relate to a 42-year-old having teenagers when 42-year-olds are only having babies these days.”
Precision, precision
Describing working with Russell on a Zoom call, place names and local landmarks had to be replaced to keep words to the same syllables.
“He would pick a word that would be the right number of beats for the sentence. So, to change the script around, to localise it for our audiences, it has to be ticked off by him,” says Norma.
“It means Irish people can relate to it more because it is an Irish person talking about being low rather than someone putting on a staged accent. People have come back two and three times. I know one lady came to see it with her friends, then she came back with her daughter and the latest was she brought her husband to see it.”
Does this mean that Sheahan managed to convince Willy Russell that this Shirley Valentine would be happy to take off to the likes of Cape Clear rather than sunny Mykonos?
“She does go to Greece but we just made the place names more local, like ‘Ah the husband is useless; he’d get jet lag if he went to Killarney’ rather than saying, ‘He wouldn’t even go to Wales, he’d get jet-lag.’”
And how does a farmer’s daughter from Whitechurch end up adapting a world-famous play?
“My mum was great. Once we did the Leaving Cert, we weren’t allowed study in Cork. She made us put other counties down on the CAO form so we had to go to college outside of Cork, all five of us. She forced us to leave, which was brilliant really. I went to UCD to do commerce and while there, I spent time with the drama society [Dramsoc] and after the degree I went on to drama school in London. I’ve done a few things in the past, they all stand to you, everything stands to you really doesn’t it?”
Norma Sheahan is Shirley Valentine running next week at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin. Headshot of Norma Sheahan
It wasn’t just any drama school Norma found herself attending. The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) is a highly regarded training ground for theatre, recognised the world over. Sharing her Shirley Valentine news with RADA classmates, many reminisced that it was their audition piece for drama school.
Shirley Valentine might be finishing in Ireland this spring but Norma Sheahan will remember bringing this much-loved character to the theatres of Ireland. “The character gets in to you and her message is all about being alive. When the husband says ‘Oh I heard about your holiday romance’ she goes, ‘The only holiday romance I‘ve had is with myself and d’you know what? I think I like myself.’”
Show dates
‘Shirley Valentine’ returns to the Gaiety Theatre with seven performances only from 24 – 28 January 2023. Tickets from €19 (including booking fee) on sale now from www.ticketmaster.ieShows also at:
Theatre Royal, Waterford 16 February.Pavilion Theatre Dún Laoghaire, 8 April.The Lime Tree Theatre, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick 22 April. Read more
The town of Abbeyfeale bares much more than the essentials
From agriculture to aristocracy, meet the "accidental duchess"
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