When Sally Reid went to work, her friend went home in tears. “She drove all the way home crying afterwards and it turns out seeing the play was a catalyst for her making massive changes in her life,” says the actress of the theatre role that for many has arguably become the defining role of her stage career.
“She realised she had to change something. Nine out of ten times playing this character, I have at least one person come up to me in the bar afterwards saying they’re ready to change something. It’s quite profound. And it moves me every time I do it.” The character is Shirley Valentine, and the role is the one-woman version of the story as originally written by Liverpudlian playwright Willy Russell, before it became a huge hit on the big screen in the 1980s with Pauline Collins and Tom Conti.
The performance – for which Sally has already won a Scottish Theatre Critics Award – should come with a warning, as she found after her friend came to see it in 2022. “You always connect to your characters. But playing Shirley Valentine is the first time I’ve ever resonated with a character to this extent.” The play opens in Edinburgh’s Lyceum theatre this week, before transferring to Pitlochry Festival Theatre later in the summer. The story of a middle-aged woman coming to terms with the fact her life is at a major crossroads, is one that resonates not only with audiences but with Sally, too, every night she performs it.
She says: “I did it two years ago the first time. Shirley was 42 and I was just approaching my 42nd birthday. I remember thinking: ‘How can she be the same age as me?’ I’m not married and don’t have kids, and there she was at 42 thinking she had no choices left in her life, no life left in her. That really hit me. Nowadays some people are only starting families or thinking who they want to be at 42. One of the things Shirley says is about not ‘wasting life’. And that really pings out for me.
“I think whatever your circumstances are Shirley Valentine can resonate with you. In the end she decides that she’s not remarkable, she’s not going to be in the history books, but she’s alive. And that’s quite profound.” The play has played a part in Sally’s journey through grief after the loss of her mother, Florence, last year. “The first time I played Shirley Valentine was before I lost my mum. And now I have this feeling that life is so quick, so precious. We really have to make the most of it. It’s a saying that has been around forever but it’s so true.
“Mum was so full of life and was so supportive of me and loved what I did. She saw Shirley Valentine first time round, after she’d gone through chemo, and she loved it. It might be a cliche to say it but it’s true: I sense her around me every day.” It’s not the only thing this summer that has helped Sally process her emotions. She has joined with her brother and dad in a charity bike ride across Scotland to raise funds for Maggie’s cancer charity. Her mum benefitted from the work of the organisation and was a keen fundraiser herself.
“Mum never learned to ride a bike,” says the Scot Squad and River City actress. “I don’t know what she might have made of what we’ve been doing. She did a lot of fundraising herself, so we wanted to honour that by doing something to raise money for something she cared about.” The challenge saw the trio cover 250 miles over four days, visiting all seven Scottish golf courses, from west to east in Scotland, which have hosted the British Open Championship ending at Maggie’s in Dundee.
Sally said: “Mum became ill in 2020 with bile duct cancer. For a while she was responding to a lot of surgeries and treatment but at the end of 2022 it came back and she passed away in January 2023.
“From the second she became ill, mum was a huge supporter of Maggies. “My dad is one of those golf fanatics,” says Sally. “My mum jokingly gave herself the name ‘golf widow’. But she used it to her advantage. Whenever my dad went off on his golf trips, she would get together with all the other wives and they too would enjoy many trips away in Scotland. So, we wanted this adventure to embrace the beauty of the Scottish countryside, that she loved so much.”
Sally’s not a natural on a bike. “The first time I went out with my dad on a training ride, I was so nervous I felt like a wee girl who’d just had the stabilisers taken off. But before I knew it after a few runs I was out in the countryside for 20 miles and absolutely loving it. It’s like meditation for me now. It’s brilliant. Being out on the bike really gives you space to think,” she adds. “I wouldn’t have been the last person to say that before, but now I’m feeling it. I think I might actually be hooked on the endorphins from the exercising.
“Grief hits you at the most incongruous times and points,” said Sally. “You just have to lean into it. I find exercise really helpful and also the feeling of going somewhere, moving forward. “That feels good!”
Shirley Valentine plays at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre until September 28.
You can visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/goforflo to support Sally and her family’s fundraising cycle challenge. pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com
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