Educating Rita
From 7 April 2003
To 12 April 2003
by Willy Russell
Description
Rita, is a working-class hairdresser with a sharp wit. She is married to Denny, and she doesn't want a baby. She wants to discover herself, so she joins the Open University. Dr. Frank Bryant is a disillusioned university professor of literature. His marriage has failed, his girlfriend is having an affair with his best friend and he can't get through the day without downing a bottle or two of whisky. He refers to himself as an appalling teacher of appalling students. What Frank needs is a challenge and along comes Rita. As Rita's intellectual perspective extends, she becomes torn between her oppressive home life and the attractive, but pretentious, world of her tutor.
Educating Rita was first performed in 1980 by the Royal Shakespeare Company and was adapted into a successful film in 1983 starring Julie Walters and Michael Caine. The Nonentities are extremely pleased to present a revival of this absorbing comedy by the writer of Shirley Valentine and Blood Brothers.
Directors Notes
As with many of the really good comedies, pathos is not far below the surface in 'Educating Rita'. As we follow Rita's journey from a hairdressing salon which seems to specialise in frizzy perms, to the rarified atmosphere of the Open University, we laugh with her and weep for her.
To her tutor Frank; middle-aged, disillusioned, depressed and seeking the meaning
of life in a whisky bottle, Rita appears as a thunderbolt. Rather like a parent
of a small child, Frank rediscovers, in Rita's naivity and joy of knowledge,
his own joy in literature, poetry, art and the theatre. However, as every parent
knows, the child grows up, and eventually takes over.