EDUCATING
RITA
A Comedy by Willy Russell.
Synopsis
“University lecturer Frank needs to earn
some extra money, so he agrees to tutor an Open University student. His student Rita is a brash, earthy
hairdresser with a recently discovered passion for higher education, much to
the dismay of her husband Denny. In her
attempts to appreciate literature, Rita challenges the attitudes of a
traditional university, teaching Frank to question his own understanding of his
work and himself.”
“ . . . Educating Rita
is a small, intimate play, but it tells a story of big ideas, ideas close to
Willy Russell’s heart. There is a lot of
humor in the writing, but it is also a serious play, about class and choice.”
The play, which explores the relationship
between student and tutor, takes place in Northern England, presumably
Liverpool, with two characters and one set: Frank’s office.
Production
History
 |
| Mark Kingston |
The Royal Shakespeare Company commissioned
Willy Russell to write this show, which premiered in June 1980 at the
Warehouse, a concert venue and recording studio on London’s south bank, and
starred Mark Kingston and Julie Waters. Three months later the show transferred
to the West End’s Piccadilly Theatre where it ran for 30 months and won the
Society of West End Theatres award for Best Comedy. Since then the show has been widely produced
in the U. S. and around the world. The
script was updated in 2003 to better reflect contemporary society.
 |
| Michael Caine and Julie Walters |
In 1983, Educating Rita was made
into a film which won Michael Caine and Julie Walters Golden Globe awards for Best
Actor and Best Actress. Russell also adapted the play into a radio version for
the BBC in 2009.
About
the Playwright
 |
| Playwright Willy Russell |
Willy Russell was born in Liverpool, leaving
school at 15 to become a hairdresser before returning to education and becoming
a teacher. While training to become a
teacher he wrote his first play, When the Reds, which premiered at the
Edinburgh Festival. His first
professional work was an adaptation of Alan Plater’s Tigers are Coming O.K.,
which appeared in Liverpool in 1973. His next work, John Paul George Ringo … and Bert,
moved from Liverpool to the West End and received the Evening Standard and
London Theatre Critics Awards for Best Musical. He is also well
known for Blood Brothers, which played in London and on Broadway, and for
screenplays for the movie versions of Shirley Valentine and Dancing
Thru the Dark based on his plays Stags and Hens. (Taken from www.castproductions.com/willyrussell.html)
Russell
began writing songs in the early 1960s. He
wrote the book, lyrics and score for Blood
Brothers and provided the 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 Terrace. His first novel, The
Wrong Boy, published in 2000, has been translated into 15
languages.
“The play [Educating Rita] was
inspired by Willy’s own experiences at evening classes. Much of the comedy arises from Rita’s fresh,
unschooled reaction to the classics of English literature, but she is never
patronized by Willy, who recognizes from his own experience that education is a
means of escape from one’s own circumstances.”
All of Russell’s plays examine the working
class and include strong women. Educating Rita examines the shortcomings of institutional education,
marriage, and the nature of self-development and unreturned love. Warm and witty, it demonstrates that anything
is possible. It borrows from the George Bernard Shaw
play Pygmalion, which was the basis for the musical hit My
Fair Lady. A more contemporary
version of this story of transformation was the film Pretty Woman.
Said Russell:
“I wanted to make a play which engaged and was relevant to those who considered
themselves uneducated, those whose daily language is not the language of the
university or the theatre. I wanted to write a play which would attract, and be
as valid for, the Ritas in the audience as the Franks.”
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