Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Be My Valentine

Shirley Valentine really needs a vacation. That much soon becomes clear in playwright Willy Russell’s one-woman comedy, directed by Douglas Anderson and presented by the Middlebury Actors Workshop. The title character, played by Karen Lefkoe, is a 42-year-old English housewife who’s reached an impasse with her life and relationships. She makes up for her uncommunicative husband by chatting to a constant companion: her kitchen wall. In spite of her humdrum days, “She’s just full of humor,” explains Lefkoe. An out-of-the-blue ticket to Greece supplies Valentine with a taste of romance and, more important, a realization of what she can be. Stop by to see the award-winning play, which the New York Times calls “a blithe and touching character study.”