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
In this essay I shall concentrate on the plays 'Road' by Jim Cartwright and 'Blasted' by Sarah Kane with specific reference to use of language and structure of dialogue as examples of dramatic techniques.
In Annie Baker’s 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning play The Flick two men, Sam, a thirty-five year-old who has been stuck in the same job for years, Avery, a twenty year old black man with a obsession for movies, and Rose, a confidant yet itimidating woman who works in the projection booth. As the play progresses the characters relationships are formed forcing their fears, dreams, and desires to slowly surface.
The play Sisters, by Wendy Lill, is set in 20th century Nova Scotia at an Indian Residential School. The play focuses on a hopeful 17-year-old farm girl named Mary who was dating Louis at the time. Along with the present Mary who is currently in interrogation with, the duty counsel, Stein. She has been accused of torching down the Residential School, the place where she worked for fifteen years. There are various factors contributing to the impulsive reasoning behind Sister Mary’s act of burning down the Residential School such as, the actual truth to why she committed the sin, the contrast relationships with others that reflected upon her actions, and the overall punishment she should receive.
In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner, the narrator creates this image of Emily to only benefit the townspeople and the town. The townspeople continue to torment Emily even when she has passed away. The town try’s to protect their image as a southern knit community, with her inheriting her father’s house, the town feels responsible for Emily at this point. Although they feel for Emily, they continuously
“In order to see things differently, sometimes you need to see different things.”(Cassie Parks. This quote represents a positive message that everyone should know, adore, and follow and that is to love oneself. One of the biggest acceptance issues people have is with themselves and loving what they were blessed with. Everyone has that one thing about them that they do not like and then they find the one person who has what they have always dreamt of and they become jealous. This is the issue between Carla and Bethany in Jane Martin’s Play, “Beauty.” The conflict in this play is the two main characters being secretly jealous of one another and not knowing it until they put everything out on the table. By the end however, something happens which leads the two girls to see the other girl’s point while in their shoes.
What is your heroine like? How is she described physically? How does the writer characterize her personality? Through what scene or scenes do we see her acting in accordance with this personality?
Not all plays are character-driven, in fact a great many are not. So if the characters are not what keep the audience intrigued, well then what does? There are many possible answers to this question. Paper Wheat uses the history of a group of people, a specific message commenting on a time period, spectacle elements such as song and dance, and the genre of comedy to keep its audience both engaged and entertained.
One of the literary techniques Shirley uses is a theme of tradition. Throughout the story, it talks about how certain things about the lottery have not changed. For example, the little black box that they draw from has not changed. The black box was torn, discolored, and older than the oldest man in the village. “Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything being done.” (Jackson) Another theme she used was the theme of family. At the beginning of the story, you can tell how important family is to the villagers by how they act. When they first gather in the village square, they split up into their own separate families. Each member of
The play that we read for this unit is Too Much Punch For Judy, by Mark Wheeller. It is a form of Verbatim Theatre, meaning that it is based on the spoken words of real people. This play is about the story of a young woman who kills her sister in an alcohol related accident. When I first read the play I couldn’t empathize with the story as I haven’t experienced such a shocking event before. In this essay I will describe, analyse and evaluate both my work and the work of other actors in my group, focusing on the mediums, elements and explorative strategies of Drama.
Being blindsided is one of the worst feelings, a person can get. Being blindsided by fascist Nazis is another thing all together. Northview High School’s drama production of Cabaret added shock to the musical by their portrayal of the arrival of the Nazi party.
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.
Wit sheds light on the problems within the American healthcare system regarding patient care and making decisions based on the well being of the patient, and not focusing on the scientific developments that can be made by studying the effects of certain drugs and illnesses on patients - this is done through the interactions between Vivian and her two doctors: Dr. Kelekian and Dr. Jason Posner, as well as interactions between Vivian and her nurse, Susie.
For an example in one particular scene, Tiffany has an episode of irritability towards her sister with assumption that her sister hates her; which included loud inappropriate comments and an abrupt exit. There were also symptoms shown such as an excess desire for sex. Tiffany casually talks about all the men she has slept with since her husband’s death, including “the whole office” at her previous job. This is a way she has learned how to deal with her depression.
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.
The musical selections and songs that were sung told a story and narrated the almost the entire film, as is expected in...