Donna is at home with Valentine role (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Donna is at home with Valentine role

10:00am Saturday 7th March 2009 in

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A HOME-grown Basingstoke performer will take centre stage when she stars in a one-woman show in April.

Shirley Valentine is a monologue by a put-upon 42-year-old mother and housewife who spontaneously takes off on a two-week jaunt to Greece.

The Liverpudlian housewife finds herself talking to the wall, comparing her current life with how things used to be while she prepares her husband’s evening meal.

But when her friend offers an all-expenses-paid holiday in Greece, she leaves behind the drudgery of cooking dinner for her husband and heads for the sun, leaving the note: “Gone to Greece, back in two weeks.”

The collaboration between Donna Marie Beeson, 39, who will play Shirley, and director Ross Harvie, 28, came about when they were both working on separate shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last summer.

Harvie, creative producer for Basingstoke’s Proteus Theatre Company, said: “The Edinburgh Festival is a very inspiring place!

“We would regularly come out of an inspiring production at the festival and talk about creating something ourselves.

“We both wanted a challenge, something to get our teeth into and something to develop our skills further.

“I knew from Donna’s Talking Heads performance – at Central Studio in 2007 – that she was perfectly comfortable with performing by herself and taking risks as an actress.

“It suddenly clicked one night up in Edinburgh, after a few too many drinks. ‘Shirley Valentine!’ I said! And it has all fallen into place from there.”

Talking about the show, Harvie, who is part of several Basingstoke youth theatre schemes, said: “Shirley Valentine is about one woman’s triumph over the ordinary and about taking opportunities when you can.”

Beeson, who grew up in Popley, Basingstoke, studied drama at Queen Mary’s College, and has been heavily involved in the local theatre scene. She is co-founder, with Harvie, of Cancelled Slot Productions, which is presenting the Central Studio show.

She said: “I hadn’t quite realised how much of a loved character Shirley Valentine is. It seems that everyone relates with her and understands her issues and it is going to be a challenge to play her in a way that retains that public sympathy and affection.”

The production will run at Central Studio from April 16 to 18, at 7.30pm. Tickets are priced at £8, £6.50 concessions, and can be booked at the box office on 01256 418318.