Heartwarming, hilarious, inspiring – Nat Bass shines in Shirley Valentine

Posted on 4 March, 2025

Acclaimed musician, actress, presenter and author, Natalie Bassingthwaighte is coming to Canberra to perform the show of a lifetime.

For just five days, we’ll get to see the Aussie queen of theatre, music and screen perform the one-woman stage show Shirley Valentine.

“I got asked if I was interested in the play and initially, before I had even read it, I was like ‘Oh my gosh, no, how would anyone do a one-woman play?’” Natalie says.

“As I always do, I’m like you can’t say no until you do the research, so I read the play, and I got to a certain part where I couldn’t put it down, and I went ‘Oh my gosh, I really need to play this character.’”

And the rest was history.

But it hasn’t been an easy process to get here. Even with her incredible expertise in acting, this play was unlike anything she’d ever done.

“I was having dialect lessons every week and that was amazing but incredibly challenging – the Liverpool accent is really specific, and my mouth wouldn’t get on board, it was rebelling against this accent.”

“I had to be very patient with myself; my director and my dialect coach were so extraordinary with me.”

A few months before rehearsals started, Natalie set herself the task of learning the script.

And while she didn’t have the full piece memorised by the time rehearsals started, she was “familiar” with the work.

“That was a good start, but then I got up on my feet and I had to actually do some other things other than stay in the accent. So, putting that all together was like that thing where you rub your tummy and pat yourself on the head,” Natalie recalls.

“I was like, ‘I can’t walk and talk with an accent’, [and then I was told I was going to cook on stage], and I was like ‘I can’t cook on stage as well as do an accent as well as act!’”

“It was all so daunting but bit by bit and step by step it all started to come together.”

“It wasn’t until I had an audience that I was like ‘I think I’m okay.’ Before that, I wasn’t sure whether it was going to come together and now, I’ve had such an incredible response.”

For those of us who need a refresher on the play, Shirley Valentine written by Willy Russell and directed by Lee Lewis, tells the much-loved, inspiring and hilarious story of Shirley, a middle-aged, working-class Liverpool housewife stuck in a life of routine.

The play sees Shirley talking to her kitchen wall, dreaming of escape and wondering what happened to the adventurous girl she once was. When a friend invites her on a spontaneous holiday to Greece, Shirley takes a bold leap into the unknown.

For Natalie, she believes there’s a reason why this show has remained popular since the play premiered in 1986.

“If you’ve raised children, you do … get to a point and go ‘Who am I now that I’ve been a wife and been a mother, what is my identity and where did I get lost along the way?’”

“I feel like that’s such a core thing that everyone connects to and that idea of ‘Imagine if I could be brave enough to put myself first’. I think that’s something that resonates with an entire audience.”

Natalie is no stranger to acting with her recent credits including the role of Elvis’s Stepmother in Baz Luhrmann’s movie Elvis, the role of Rachel in the feature film Take My Hand, and of course, she reprised her role as Izzy Hoyland in the iconic TV series Neighbours.

Despite this, she says stage acting is a new experience.

“Obviously I’ve been on a stage before, with musicals, but I’ve only done one play in my life which was many years ago. It’s very different [to screen acting], it’s so nice that you can really immerse yourself in a character from beginning to end, I’m really enjoying it.”

“It’s pretty exhausting especially on your own because you’re carrying the whole piece for a couple of hours, but it is really rewarding.”

As for her favourite part of being involved in this process? Simply the connection with the audience.

“Because it’s a one-woman play, I feel like I’m sitting there having a really nice intimate conversation with the crowd and they laugh out loud and with gusto. It’s like [I’m] at one with the audience.”

Melbourne has already had the chance to see the incredible performance, with Adelaide and Canberra also on the bill.

Natalie is used to playing for big audiences like Melbourne, but she says there’s something special about coming somewhere slightly smaller, like Canberra.

“It feels like you get to connect with an audience on a different level and obviously Canberra Theatre Centre is just beautiful and it’s a real place to celebrate the arts.”

“As far as [the Canberra] audience goes, I’m really amped for them to see this piece and connect with it like other places have so far.”

As for her itinerary while she’s in town?

“I am totally going to go spend some time with my friends,” Natalie laughs.

“If I bring my son, I’m going to take him to the War Memorial and things like that but it’s such a short run, I’m there for literally five days or something.”

“So, I’ll just do the best show for you guys and sleep for the rest of it!”

If you’re still not convinced that this is a must-see piece of work, Natalie has these words of advice.

“If you don’t come see the show, you may miss out and you’ll regret that for the rest of your life, it’s amazing.”

“Even if I wasn’t playing the role, this play is something that you can’t miss, it’s such a special piece.”

Images supplied.