Shirley Valentine Shirley Valentine Shirley Valentine is a one-character play by Willy Russell. Taking the form of a monologue by a middle-aged, working class Liverpool housewife, it focuses on her life before and after a transforming holiday abroad. Wondering what has happened to her youth and feeling stagnant and in a rut, Shirley finds herself regularly alone and talking to the wall while preparing an evening meal of egg and chips for her emotionally distant husband. When her best friend offers to pay for a trip-for-two to Greece, she packs her bags, leaves a note on the cupboard door in the kitchen,
Shirley Valentine (film) job and is not upset at catching him in the act. Shirley's husband, who was angry and confused at her departure, waits for her return with a large armful of flowers. He is shocked and embarrassed to find Shirley chose to stay and isn't on the plane, and repeatedly calls her, pleading and arguing for her to return, saying that it is her place and she is embarrassing him, or telling her that her actions result from a mid-life crisis or menopause. Shirley becomes more content with her new life. She also becomes a great success with narrow-minded holiday makers