Dramatic Techniques in Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell
How do the dramatic techniques use in the play help the audience to
understand the importance of Shirley’s transformation? You should refer
to the significance of the play’s social and historical (settings,
attitudes to women
SHIRLEY VALENTINE
Task: How do the dramatic techniques use in the play help the audience
to understand the importance of Shirley’s transformation? You should
refer to the significance of the play’s social and historical
(settings, attitudes to women, attitudes to marriage, expectations of
life, etc) context and the literary context (kitchen-sink drama,
comedy, tragedy, drama, etc).
The play ‘Shirley Valentine’ was written by Willy Russell. Russell was
born in 1976, near Liverpool. He left school when he was fifteen and
did a variety of jobs before becoming a writer. Originally he used to
be a songwriter, performing in his late teens. By the time he was
twenty he decided to become a playwright rather than his desired
option of teaching. In his first eighteen months schools loved his
work and he decided that he was successful enough to do it fulltime.
“Shirley Valentine”, is the story of a middle age woman living in
Liverpool and her change in life. Russell explores the usage of
different dramatic techniques to tell a complex story. We the audience
are in contact with Shirley from the beginning, because she talks to
the camera. This forms a friendship between Shirley and the audience.
We become her confidante. Other dramatic techniques used by the
playwright are the use of Flashbacks and Voiceovers. In flashbacks
Shirley would be doing something and would drift off talking about
something that had happened earlier on in the day or a previous day,
so we would get all the background information, on what has been going
on. It also highlights the important events in her life to show us how
she got to this point in her life. In Voiceovers Shirley would express
her true feelings about someone whilst they would be talking about the
thing that Shirley is expressing her feelings about.
The opening credits depict a series of fifteen sketches that show
Shirley doing her everyday routine of domestic chores, with no
enthusiasm. Shirley if cleaning and cooking, this tells us what her
life is like, boring. You could see that she is tired of living out
her life in an ordinary marriage, with very little going on, she has
all this Unfulfilled Potential which she desperately wants to
overturn. The words of the soundtrack are very cleverly adapted to the
sketches shown. They tell the everyday life story of a woman that has
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Dramatic Devices in Willy Russell's Shirley Valentine Willy Russell uses many different dramatic devices to explore the issues and themes of the play 'Shirley Valentine'. One of the main themes is change, Russell explores and portrays this issue using several dramatic techniques, particularly flashbacks, stereotypes and contrast. In the opening scenes of the play, Shirley is a stereotypical housewife. Her daily routine is cooking and running after her husband, Joe.
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The theatricality of everyday life is explored throughout the play. The world, as it may seem, is indeed one giant theater. Each individual goes through stages of their lives, conforming to a certain part of society in distinctive ways. Everyone is a victim of his or her own disguise, suggesting that subversion to a certain appearance can eventually become the reality. This is shown through one of the most dominant characters in the play, Rosalind. When she becomes banished from the court in which she resided, she leaves not with dismay but with strong idiosyncratic opinion of the male dominated court.