I'm not sayin' my fella's bad, mind ya. He's just no bleedin' good."

Such is the dilemma of Shirley Valentine, a working-class Liverpool housewife whose conversation with her kitchen wall reveals a tired, neglected mum whose empty life is passing by. In Willy Russell's 1986 play, Shirley is only 42, but she's exhausted by a worn-out marriage, a pair of ungrateful grown children, snide neighbors and wistful memories. But a girlfriend -- a budding feminist -- has offered Shirley a free ticket to a two-week vacation in Greece, and much of Act I is given over to her debate about whether she can muster up the courage to go.

It's amusing and touching, if a bit dated. Shirley knows there's been a sexual revolution out there, but she missed it. Her husband, Joe, loved her once, she thinks, but the routine of life has oppressed them both. "Marriage is a lot like the Middle East, isn't it?" she says to the wall. "There's no solution."

This one-woman show succeeds mainly on the considerable talent of Shirley's portrayer, Jill Bari Steinberg, who works with a quiet power that gently but firmly holds the audience's attention. Regretful and subtly angry at the start, Steinberg's Shirley has a flash of vivacity when she recalls a meeting with an old school friend. Her eyes jolt with fear when she hears Joe return from work. Her sardonic way with a line invariably wins laughs, and her Liverpudlian accent, once she gets going, is impressive.

Director Amy Berlin guides Steinberg through a smoothly built performance that makes Shirley's growth and change believable, but the details of the production are uneven. Terrie Powers and David Powers provide a delightful set that is cumbersome during scene changes; Matt Land's lighting design seems a bit too dramatic. Sue Griffin's costumes are just right, but Steinberg's first-act wig looks silly. There are authentic evocations of 1986 Liverpool in the onstage appliances, but the music in Buddy Bishop's sound design sounds thin.

Though Russell uses some salty language, this decades-old comedy-drama breaks no new ground. But Steinberg deftly connects us to Shirley's yearning for life, and she enlists us in a fervent wish for her happiness.
Susan Haubenstock is a freelance writer and editor based in Henrico County. Contact her at shaubenstock@gmail.com.