Heather Macnab is seen during her performance of Shirley Valentine at the MHMT playhouse on Wednesday evening.--News Photo Anna Smith
asmith@medicinehatnews.com
Shirley Valentine, the moment you meet her, is real beyond a shadow of a doubt.
In Medicine Hat Musical Theatre’s latest offering, Valentine, as portrayed by the brilliant Heather Macnab, is both the titular and only on-stage character. The entirety of the piece is shown through her speaking almost directly to the audience, through the conceit of her target truly being her own kitchen wall, or a rock somewhere on a Greek beach.
Valentine is incredibly candid, almost to the point of it being shocking; she doesn’t shy away from speaking on any and all aspects of her life, but it only lends to the almost oppressively lonely atmosphere of the kitchen. She can say anything, even dipping into the near-vulgar, because she understands that truly, nobody is listening.
Even when she has successfully escaped to her beautifully crafted space on the beach, that loneliness and the honesty that comes with it follow her, unsoftened by the images of white stone or blue sea.
This makes watching her confidence and self-love slowly grow all the more rewarding, watching her posture slowly open and the pain slowly leech out of her voice as she reclaims more of her former identity.
Macnab’s experience with the role shines through in each scene and idea, the motions and emotions of Valentine clearly second nature. It is almost difficult to believe that they could possibly be separate people, at more than a few points.
Her impressions of the other people in Valentine’s life, the only way we hear the words of anyone other than our 42-year-old housewife, feel like exactly that; comfortable, spot-on impressions of people that she’s known for years.
A smaller detail that cannot go unmentioned is the sound design of the piece. It manages to be perfectly mundane, enhancing only the smallest of details such as turning on a faucet or frying some chips on the stovetop. At several points, it’s easy to forget that there is not, in fact, a working oven on stage, but rather spot-on timing and co-ordination between actress and tech crew.
Overall, the performance manages to be real in a way that most plays are not. Valentine asks real questions that most women, perhaps even most people, ask themselves into the mirror at one point or another. She manages to do this while being funny, introspective and deserving of all of the good things that she manages to find for herself on her 14 days of vacation in a way that calls to mind a longtime friend or coworker.
Shirley Valentine is a heart wrenching and astonishingly British reminder not to waste the time and sheer bounty of life that each person has been given, and spending an evening receiving said reminder is far from a poor use of either.
