Shirley Valentine is a middle-aged Liverpudlian housewife who talks to the wall whilst preparing her husband’s egg and chips. She is in a rut. What has happened to her life? When her best friend Jane pays for a holiday for two to Greece she packs her bags, heads for the sun and starts to see the world and herself rather differently.

Willy Russell’s popular play Shirley Valentine received its world premiere in Liverpool in 1986. It opened in the West End two years later with Pauline Collins as the eponymous lead and went on to win the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy. It was also given a hugely successful movie adaptation.

This production of Shirley Valentine was staged at the Menier Chocolate Factory earlier in the year, where it was so successful that it received a transfer to the Trafalgar Studio 1.

Actress Meera Syal, who plays Shirley Valentine, is best known for her television work on programmes including Goodness Gracious Me, The Kumars At Number 42, Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee and Beautiful People.

Shirley Valentine is presented in rep with another of Will Russell’s plays, Educating Rita.