Shirley Valentine to kick off ATF's 2007 season

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

The Advertiser

NovaNewsNow.com

Director Linda Moore and her composer husband Sandy were in the vanguard of Halifax culturata summering in Kingsport. Moore says the couple found the community in 1987 when housing prices were depressed due to erosion of the red clay cliffs. She credits Jeff and Paula McMahon, who took over Longspell Farm, for its revival.

Among the visitors who watched sunsets from the Moore's cottage was actor Niki Lipman, who is in the area this summer in the lead role of Atlantic Theatre Festival’s production of Shirley Valentine.

Both women praise the beauty and peace of the Minas Basin village. "There's a community there," Moore says. "It's quiet. There are no streetlights and people are farming."

Lipman calls Kingsport another zone. She says even the climate of her home base is different. "You can shift gears." But then there's the proximity to Wolfville and Kentville and that's great, adds Moore. "It's Shangri La," Lipman says, "with culture in Wolfville and Frenchies."

"She adores Frenchies," Moore says of her friend and colleague.

These two have taken a professional look at Willy Russell's fiesty female lead before. Moore directed Lipman at Halifax's Neptune Theatre in 1992, "but it was a very different production," Lipman said.

Play has lots of appeal

Moore says she and Atlantic Theatre Festival artistic director Nigel Bennett had a chat months ago about pairing Shirley Valentine up with The Drawer Boy. "It's the kind of play that has a lot of appeal,” she says of Shirley Valentine. “It's very funny, but in the laughter and tears genre. It's not dated."

In fact, Moore has a high regard for the playwright. Russell was a Liverpool lad who dropped out of school at the age of 15, she says, and then discovered theatre. He wrote Educating Rita, which was made into a film with Michael Caine, and then successfully branched into screenwriting and television.

Lipman admires Russell’s ability to give women an authentic voice. "He understands women. Here's Shirley Valentine, who's feeling disenfranchised, but has all these street smarts."

“It's about finding your voice," Moore says.

In the play, Shirley Valentine is a middle-aged Liverpool housewife in a rut. When her best friend wins an all-expense paid vacation for two, she packs her bags for the sun. The note left behind on the kitchen table reads 'Gone to Greece back in two weeks." Shirley begins to look at the world in a different light.

Lipman says she really likes Shirley as a character. "She surprises me and makes me laugh. Now that I'm older, I look at her with different eyes. It's great to do again, but it's a huge undertaking."

Like running a marathon

One-woman shows are notoriously demanding. Lipman creates a host of characters in Shirley's world. "As an actress, you’re flying to bring all those people to life."

Moore adds, "it's a marathon, even though the play runs less than two hours."

"You need a burst of energy. It's draining and a great feeling at the same time," Lipman said.

Rehearsals for this play, Moore contends, compare with athletic training. "We're running it now," she says. "It has to be in your bones and then you get into stride."

Not only does Lipman convey Shirley's drama, she also cooks a meal during the first act. "It all has to be second nature," notes the director. Lipman knows from memory where the onions are stored in Shirley's kitchen. "Second shelf under the sideboard," she says. "You create her world organically. The team working on this production understands that. It's a group effort."

According to Moore, Shirley Valentine is not a play that will appeal just to female audiences. "It transcends labels like ‘feminism’ and ‘politics’. It's about being alive." That theme of not wasting life, adds Lipman, is what makes the play transporting. "We all needs that reminder."

The pay what you can performance of Shirley Valentine is July 17 at the Festival Theatre in Wolfville, with preview night Wednesday and opening night July 19. Starting next week it will run in repertory with The Drawer Boy. The run ends Aug. 15.