“Meera Syal’s infinitely warm, responsive performance also cooks up a storm of feeling that has you cheering from within… a bracingly funny and moving production”
Mark Shenton, Sunday Express

“Meera Syal is funny, candid and quietly heroic… expert comic timing”
Georgina Brown, Mail On Sunday

“London’s Best Comedy Performance”
Sam Marlowe, Time Out

“Glorious”
Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard

“Meera Syal relishes the role. Earthy yet elevated, elegant yet brazen”
Patrick Marmion, Daily Mail

“Meera Syal nails Shirley with a wonderfully moving grace and affection. Syal’s acting, beautifully pointed and measured, delivers a perfectly structured human comedy”
Michael Coveney, Independent

Michael Coveney, WhatsOnStage

“Meera Syal gives a heart-catching, lovely performance… with Glen Walford’s beautifully judged production, it will glow in the memory of all who see it.”
Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph

“Meera Syal gives a memorable performance as Shirley, bringing a touching anguish. There are some great comic lines which are delivered with polish.
A near-perfect portrayal.”
Paul Callan, Daily Express

Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times

“wit, intelligence, yearning and vulnerability”
Sam Marlowe, Times Online

“Meera Syal is touching”
Daily Telegraph Online

“Meera Syal is irresistible as Shirley Valentine: warm, communicative and bittersweet. She has the audience eating out of her hand”
Kate Kellaway, The Observer

“Meera Syal is an accomplished comic actor… a remarkable tour de force”
Heather Neill, The Stage

“a triumph… affecting, funny and fresh”
Dominic Maxwell, Times

“Meera Syal is simply terrific”
Michael Coveney, WhatsOnStage

Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard

Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times

Sam Marlowe, Times Online

“beautifully acted... Laura Dos Santos bringing a feisty, appealing and affecting energy to Rita”
Mark Shenton, Sunday Express

“completely engaging”
Michael Coveney, WhatsOnStage

“Laura Dos Santos is an exuberantly wise-cracking foil – we certainly haven’t seen the last of her.”
Patrick Marmion, Daily Mail

“Newcomer Laura Dos Santos is a marvellously convincing Rita – a talent to watch.”
Georgina Brown, Mail On Sunday

“A truly great play. The humour is superb… also deeply moving. Laura Dos Santos brings a winning vitality and depth of feeling to the role”
Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph

“Laura Dos Santos displays impeccable comic timing as Rita and combines this talent with an understanding of the pathos that lies behind a young woman.”
Paul Callan, Daily Express

“Laura Dos Santos catches Rita’s garrulous curiousity perfectly.”
Kate Kellaway, The Observer

“a vividly articulated performance from Laura Dos Santos”
Michael Coveney, Independent

“a wise and very funny play”
Heather Neill, The Stage

“remains fascinating”
Robert Shore, Metro

Read Willy Russell's interview in The Time here

Read Willy Russell's interview in The Guardian here

"Willy Russell's comic masterpieces... both are hilarious"
Paul Callan, Daily Express

"Both Rita and Shirley are wonderful creations, written with warmth, sympathy and wit. Both pieces stand the test of time."
Georgina Brown, Mail On Sunday

"Willy Russell - one of the loudest, brightest and most popular voices around"
Patrick Marmion, Daily Mail

"What an invigorating delight it is to see these plays together."
Kate Kellaway, The Observer

"The Menier Chocolate Factory have brilliantly brought Russull’s pair of plays back to town."
Mark Shenton, Sunday Express

"Warm, soothing and at times raucous and invigorating… Meera Syal and Laura Dos Santos fall joyously upon their roles"
Lyn Gardner, Guardian

"a breath of fresh air - two wonderful scouse heroines"
Michael Coveney, WhatsOnStage

"Russell's work drills straight into universal emotions"
Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard

"Russell is a writer of genuine nobility of spirit, with a rare gift for empathy, observation and sheer humanit... moving and persuasive"
Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph

"Russell's plays have a refreshing directness...his writing chimes with ordinary people… these plays speak to us all"
Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times

"Russell was always a gifted dramatist with a lovely turn of phrase. He writes so truthfully and wittily about his scouse ladies that these short plays are such bubbles of delight."
Michael Coveney, Independent