Educating Rita (Modern Classics)

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From 26 March to 8 May 2010, as part of the Willy Russell season at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Laura Dos Santos reprised her radio performance on stage as Rita alongside Larry Lamb as Frank. This was the production's first London West End revival. This production transferred to the Trafalgar Studios in London's West End from 8 July to 30 October 2010, produced by Sonia Friedman. Laura Dos Santos reprised her radio and Menier Chocolate Factory performance as Rita, and Frank was played by renowned actor Tim Pigott-Smith. Like the Willy Russell season at the Menier Chocolate Factory, the production ran in repertory alongside Shirley Valentine starring Meera Syal. A UK tour played in 2012, starring Claire Sweeney and Matthew Kelly as Rita and Frank respectively.

During the semester, Frank gives Rita an assignment to answer how a person might go about navigating the “staging difficulties” that come along with putting on a production of Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt. In response, she writes, “Do it on the radio.” Once again, Frank tells her that there are a set of rules and expectations when it comes to answering academic questions. Despite Rita’s rather uninvolved answer, though, she tells him that she’s been thinking a lot about the play, considering the fact that its protagonist searches for meaning in his life. In fact, the play has been on her mind so much that she talks about it to her clients at the salon (since she can’t talk about it with Denny, who hates that she’s getting an education and thus forbids her from doing anything academic at home). This leads Frank and Rita into a conversation about “working-class culture,” which Rita argues doesn’t exist. Indeed, she upholds that her way of life is completely devoid of meaning, since everybody wants to buy material objects instead of actually doing anything to change their lives. Even she has lived this way, she says, telling Frank that she used to buy dresses as a way of distracting herself from her discontent. Now, though, she has decided to refrain from buying a new dress until after she has passed her first exam. Susan (who initially calls herself Rita), a 26-year-old working-class hairdresser, is dissatisfied with the routine of her work and social life; she is reluctant to have a child, fearing it will tie her to the same monotonous routine for life, and she yearns to escape to something more profound, without exactly knowing what that is. She seeks to better herself by signing up for and attending an Open University course in Literature. FRANK (breaking away slightly) Of course he failed. You see, a clever answer is not necessarily the correct answer. Willy Russell's twist on Pygmalion still works as well as it ever did on stage, as this worthwhile and entertaining production shows, so surely the time is ripe for some more revivals from the Russell canon other than the slightly tired touring production of Blood Brothers.

Willy Russell on Educating Rita – a play that changed the theatre

The director adds: “Educating Rita contains all the hallmarks of what audiences love in a play. It’s funny, entertaining, thought-provoking and – even after the 40 plus years since Willy Russell wrote it – very relevant.” William Russell is a British dramatist, lyricist, and composer. His best-known works are Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine, and Blood Brothers. Willy Russell's first novel, The Wrong Boy, was published in 2000. Russell has provided the musical scores for the feature films, Shirley Valentine, Dancin' Thru The Dark and Mr Love, as well as for the TV series Connie and the television play Terraces. Willy Russell released his first album, Hoovering the Moon, in 2003. The Willy Russell archive Caine and Walters both won BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for best actor and actress. The British Film Institute ranked Educating Rita the 84th greatest British film of the 20th century. [4] Plot [ edit ]

I enjoyed the first act and was going to rate the book a 5/5 but something about the second act made me hesitate and turn to a 4/5... this is because I only rate books 5/5 that I would happily say ‘this is one of my favourite books’ about. A 35th anniversary production was staged at Liverpool Playhouse from 6 February to 7 March 2015, starring Leanne Best as Rita and Con O'Neill as Frank, directed by Gemma Bodinetz. The same year the Chichester Festival staged a production with Lenny Henry and Lashana Lynch as Frank and Rita. [6] Awards and nominations [ edit ] Susan (who initially calls herself Rita), dissatisfied with the routine of her work and social life, seeks inner growth by signing up for and attending an Open University course in English Literature. The play opens as 'Rita' meets her tutor, Frank, for the first time. Frank is a middle-aged, alcoholic career academic who has taken on the tutorship to pay for his drink. The two have an immediate and profound effect on one another; Frank is impressed by Susan's verve and earnestness and is forced to re-examine his attitudes and position in life; Susan finds Frank's tutelage opens doors to a bohemian lifestyle and a new self-confidence. However, Frank's bitterness and cynicism return as he notices Susan beginning to adopt the pretensions of the university culture he despises. Susan becomes disillusioned by a friend's attempted suicide and realises that her new social niche is rife with the same dishonesty and superficiality she had previously sought to escape. The play ends as Frank, sent to Australia on a sabbatical, welcomes the possibilities of the change. Frank's bitterness and cynicism return as he notices Susan beginning to adopt the pretensions of the university culture he despises. Susan becomes disillusioned by a friend's attempted suicide and realises that her new social niche is rife with the same dishonesty and superficiality she had previously sought to escape. The film ends as Frank, sent to Australia on a sabbatical, welcomes the possibilities of the change. Stade, George and Karbiener, Karen. "Russell, William Martin (1947-)", Encyclopedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present, Volume 2, pg. 426, Infobase Publishing, 2010; ISBN 1438116896It wasa big character change for me up until that point I’d been playing Michael Caine-ish in everything.The most extraordinary thing about that role for me was that I could find nothing of myself in it.He was the farthest away from myself I’d ever been with a character, which is the ideal place for an actor to be.Julie Walters really helped me look good. She’d never done a movie before.She’d done the play, so she was very into the characters, but I thought she played down, into the style of film acting, just beautifully. A lot of theatre actors would have gone over the top with it”