CONSIDERABLE COURAGE is required to go forth on a cold winter night to see a play. As soon as the lights come up and Nicola Cavendish starts to speak, the battle with weather fatigue make sense. Centaur Theatre’s production of Shirley Valentine is about a very funny working class woman who abandons her brutish husband for a vacation in Greece. The opening line of the departure scene is a flat statement: “I should have told him.” But in the context of her trepidation about leaving, the actor’s dead pan delivery brought the house down on opening night.

Roy Surette directed Vancouver stage star Cavendish in the role two decades ago, for a cross-country tour. This time, it’s a co-production with Toronto’s Canadian Stage Company. Given the number of times she has performed this one-woman show, Cavendish is surprisingly fresh, her comedic pitch, still perfect. Then there were the brilliant zingers delivered with credibility and energy: “Logic had nothing to do with it; marriage is not logical, it’s like the Middle East.” The sets are good, the lighting spectacular. The costumes get laughs independent of the script, which is a real tribute to designer, Phillip Clarkson.

The playwright Willy Russell also wrote Educating Rita, about a working-class female hairdresser and her Open University teacher. The autobiographical story was made into a film in 1983 starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters, the film script also written by Russell. He composed the music and lyrics for Blood Brothers, a long-running musical. Comedy is not for sissies, and Russell is a true heavy weight. Every line of Shirley Valentine is consistently interesting. It is astonishing that a man could have created such lively and lovable female persona.

Cavendish is flawless in her portrayal of the various characters, young and old, men and women, who share Shirley’s contrasting worlds. The message of the play is ageless; carpe diem folks, gather those rosebuds while ye may, “in the time of your life, live!” The “philosophy lite” moments which would ordinarily make adults squirm had a way of working, thanks to Cavendish’s ability to combine sincerity with innocence. She wins over the toughest cynics. This play could easily turn into fluff. Surette has avoided temptation, and delivered a strong comedic show.

Dig yourselves out and get to the Centaur for a warm bellyful of laughs.

Continues at Centaur Theatre through Feb 22. Box office 514-288-1229.