REVIEW: Pauline Daniels in Shirley Valentine at the Royal Court
Liverpool echo

PAULINE Collins may have portrayed her on film - but Pauline Daniels remains the definitive Shirley Valentine for many fans of Willy Russell’s finely-tuned suburban comedy. The comedienne/actress/singer has played his desperate housewife on stage somewhere every year for the past decade. It’s a track record which means she knows the role inside out. Equally, there’s always a risk familiarity could lead to complacency.
But it’s obvious from the opening minute of this latest production at the Royal Court - helmed by original Shirley Valentine director Glen Walford - that Daniels truly relishes the role of the middle-aged mum on the edge of a mid-life crisis, teetering with potato peeler in hand and with only a kitchen wall to confide in.
Shirley Bradshaw has been a wife, mother and domestic drudge for so long she has forgotten the young, carefree, risk-taking Shirley Valentine who used to love life so much – until best friend Jane invites her on a girls’ only holiday to Greece that is.
That invitation - much debated as the deep fat fryer sizzles away in the corner cooking tea for the never-seen husband, Joe - sets the wheels in motion for a life-changing, life-enhancing experience for the 48-year-old housewife.
Russell (himself among last night’s audience) has always had an intuitive ear for women’s voices, and a keen eye for the comic minutiae of life. Daniels takes his mammoth monologue and runs with it, from kitchen sink to Greece’s sun-kissed sands.
Her Shirley is, rather like Mary Poppins, “practically perfect in every way”. I say practically because there is an argument to be made for a touch less bravado and a touch more wistfulness, in the first half at least.
But in the end the quibbles are really just that, because at heart this is a performance crafted with great love, warmth, and with masterful comic timing.
Shirley’s diatribe about Milk Tray man and the retelling of son Brian’s disastrous school nativity play generate gales of laughter, while the rather brutal pay off line from the moment Greek taverna owner Costas kisses her stretch marks is delivered beautifully.Mark Walkers has created the Rolls Royce of kitchen sets while the golden Greek sands turns almost amber as the swimsuit-clad Shirley finally finds the contentment she’s been searching for.

What´s on Stage.com , Liverpool
...Glen Walford, the play’s original director, has once again aided brilliantly in bringing further sparkle to the piece, so that all is lain out before the audience in a manner that guarantees the fact that audiences will both laugh and cry, as Russell’s exemplary words tumble forth...

LiverpoolConfidential.com
...Liverpool comic Pauline Daniels who has taken ownership of Shirley Valentine, complete with log book, and has made it her her own, talking to the bloody wall as only she can. It is a role she loves, swimming confidently in Shirley's ample folds. Interestingly, then, the latest incarnation sees Daniels as the third person in the resurrected theatre marriage between Russell and the play's original commissioning director, ex-Everyman supremo Glen Walford.
Walford is back in town to take on a 21st century Shirley at the Royal Court, kicking off the Festival of Comedy. And, on press night, the only thing the men are full of is “it” - enthusiasm that is - as they dot themselves among a largely female packed house that is delighted to sit before the dishwashing diva in all her put-upon glory...

Macbeth strikes a chord

Scores of theatre-lovers braved heavy rains on Saturday night to attend the gala opening of Glen Walford's adaptation of Shakespeare's famous play Macbeth at the Frank Collymore Hall. Produced by the Gale Theatre of London and Barbados, the play is directed by Walford, a respected British director, with Barbadian-born Canadian actress Alison Sealy-Smith as Lady Macbeth and British actor Peter Temple as Macbeth.
It was a riveting performance by Sealy-Smith, including her delivery of the often-memerised quote "Out, damned spot!" so familiar to fans of the play.

Something wicked this way comes
The Barbados Advocate - 11th April 2008
Stories by Khalil Goodman

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Glen Walford-directed production of 'Macbeth' is her setting the play in an unknown forest and placing the witches more prominently in the centre of the action.
Filled with violent plots, supernatural intrigue, a fascinating look at the corruption of a man debatably by his own imagination or ambition, the play certainly has something for everyone.
Glen Walford chooses to place the witches more prominently in her production. Bedecked in unitards covered in animal print, the witches move throughout the play in fluid and appropriately bizarre ways. Walford's witches are young and otherworldly creatures, suggesting animal spirits of some Aboriginal nation more so than old hags.
The weird Sisters (played by Varia Williams, Ayesha Gibson and newcomer Ramona Grandison) are almost always present in the scenes of the play. When Lady Macbeth cries "Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here" the witches are behind, seemingly filling her with murderous cause and ruthless intent. The witches whisper into the ears of the characters, or just whisper at the edges of the action, overseeing and - it would seem - driving the plot to it's violent end.
While this certainly throws an interesting take on the production it does take some of the ambiguous nature out of the play.
Peter Temple playing the title role gives it his all, presenting Macbeth as both close kin to the fatally introspective Hamlet, as well as the power-wielding men of ill will like Richard III.
Temple's rendering of the line "...am in blood stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er" is said in a voice so strangled and tired you can see he is just about to be overwhelmed, yet he clings to false bravado.
Alison Sealy-Smith plays her Lady Macbeth as a ruthless harridan rebuking her husband to commit murder rather than coaxing him, she smiles at him sexually one minute then rebukes him when he fails to do as he is told.
But slowly the two exchange roles with Temple becoming more vicious and Sealy-Smith slowly crumbling in preparation for the famous nightwalking scene.
All of the choking horror of the play is set in 'forest' stage production created by Martina Pile with Charles O'dell on drums and Ben Goddard (who also doubles as Ross) providing a haunting flute to accent some of the action.

The Stage www.thestage.co.uk
29.6.07
The Comedy of Errors - Ludlow Festival
If one of the marks of a successful production is to send a reviewer back to the play with renewed respect and insight, then Glen Walford’s Ludlow Festival The Comedy of Errors is a triumphant vindication of her choice. Probably Shakespeare’s first play and certainly his shortest, the piece is constantly patronised, pruned or heavily adulterated. Not here. The secret of the company’s artistic success is to acknowledge and exploit the brilliance of Shakespeare’s plotting; he outplots Plautus in spades. Everything is manically plot-driven; there is no pretence of literary sophistication or psychological subtlety. Highlighting the elements of frenetic farce is the key to unlocking the play’s vastly underrated performance potential. The result is an evening of hugely inventive exuberance and a convincing consistency of acting style. A rare event in summer festival Shakespeare, where Bardolatory is endemic: an audience without preconceptions relishing a play without pretention. Even the three minutes of rainfall were tears of laughter from an enchanted empyrean. The cast capitalise on the play’s preposterous absurdities by acknowledging them and revelling in them . In this they are fired and energised by the two superbly vaudevilled Dromios of Matthew Devitt and Roy Holder. As their bemused masters, the twin Antipholi, Andrew Pollard and Jonathan Markwood hover captivatingly on the brink of self-parody, as do the hilariously delerious, dementedly tormented Adele Lynch (Adriana) and Louise Shuttleworth (Luciana). Rodney Ford’s stunning set gives us a Turkish Ephesus, secretive, sensual, sinister, a bustling sea port, gateway to all manner of deception and distraction. It brilliantly exploits the resonance of Ludlow Castle’s inner bailey and is magically lit by Mark Dymock. We have waited too long in Ludlow for a production of such coherence and conviction.

'...The Bard’s short farce was performed with verve and gusto by a talented cast, under the brilliant directorship of Glen Walford. When festival chairman Ray Sykes brought Walford back to Ludlow, he charged her with creating a hit. She’s done exactly that and Ludlow Festival has a theatrical crackerjack on its hands...' The Shropshire Star

...'Walford has realised that performances need to be vocally and gesturally large to carry across this space, which is a lot harder to play than it may look. She also has an awareness of the production’s place as part of a festival, which has sometimes been missing in the past. This translates in practice into big vaudevillean performances of the kind that think “subtleties” are captions on foreign films... ' The Financial Times

Blithe Spirit at Holders Festival, Barbados

Noel Coward play a delightful comedy - a review by Orlando Marville

I have not seen anything like it for such a long time I dont know where to begin. I always thought Coward was both a little repetitive and rare in his comedy, but I was most pleased by the Caribbeanised adapatation of his play, Blithe Spirit which was staged by Gale Theatre of Barbados and London at the Frank Collymore Hall over the last two weeks. The Gale Theatre as it suggests is a combination of London professionals and local dramatic talent seldom seen in such brilliant cooperation...

...Special kudos must be paid to both the director/adaptor of the play Glen Walford and to
Miss Gayle who played the role of the medium from Kingston. She was brilliant
and entertaining. Her skills as a comedian were essential to the play
being a success...

....It marked a return to theatre of a standard that I have not seen for years in Barbados. I sincerely hope the that the Gale Theatre of London and Barbados grows from strength to strength and that the public attends everything they do. If this is the level of quality entertainment they are capable of, I certainly want more!'