Educating Rita (Modern Classics)

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Russell, Willy. " Shirley Valentine Script" Shirley Valentine: A Play, Samuel French, Inc., 1989, ISBN 0-573691207 Variety magazine in December 1982 lauded Walters' interpretation of Rita as "[w]itty, down-to-earth, kind and loaded with common sense". "Rita," the review continues, "is the antithesis of the humorless, stuffy and stagnated academic world she so longs to infiltrate. Julie Walters injects her with just the right mix of comedy and pathos." [7] The play was adapted by Russell for radio in 2009. It starred Bill Nighy and Laura Dos Santos directed by Kirsty Williams, and was a 90-minute play broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Boxing Day 2009. [2] Revivals [ edit ] An eight-strong cast brings a boisterous energy to the series of increasingly frenetic situations of mistaken identity set off by the arrival in Ephesus of Antipholus and his servant, Dromio. Unknown to them – or to anyone else – the city is home to each of their long-lost, identical siblings, also master and servant and also called Antipholus and Dromio. Making no pretence at a fourth wall, the performers share everything directly with the happily involved spectators, only concealing, until the final scene, the secret of the uncanny resemblances between the twin-pair actors. Great fun.

She also provides the play’s most heart-stopping – and romantic – moment, which shows these two characters brought together in a sudden burst of affection, even as they prepare to peel away into their own separate lives.Frank, a middle-aged professor, drinks scotch in his university office and has a telephone conversation with Julia, his girlfriend. Sipping his drink, he tells her that he’ll miss dinner because he has to give a private tutoring session to a woman taking night classes at the university. He adds that he plans to go to the pub after the tutorial, saying that the entire reason he agreed to take on this extra teaching load was to pay for his drinking habit. When he hangs up, his student arrives. Her name is Rita, a hairdresser with a large personality. Within minutes of arriving, she surprises Frank by swearing and talking bluntly about a nude painting hanging in his office. Although some of her observations are crass, he’s pleasantly surprised by her wit and commentary. The original production received the 1980 Olivier Award nomination for Comedy Performance of the Year for Julie Walters and won for Comedy of the Year. [7] See also [ edit ] Rita's desire to "improve" herself is amusing to Frank—who already has everything that she desires but does not value it—but her friends and family see it as a betrayal, as they proudly defend a lifestyle that she describes as being without any culture or any desire to look for something better. After a period during which she feels she doesn't fit in with the educated people she looks up to and feels like an outsider at home, she eventually finds her confidence—until we end with a bit of a role reversal between teacher and student. RITA Yeh. An' it might be worthless in the end. But I had a choice. I chose, me. Because of what you'd given me I had a

Russell's first play was Keep Your Eyes Down (1971), written while he trained as a teacher at Saint Katherine's College of Higher Education in Liverpool and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1971. [3] [4] In 1987, Laurie Metcalf starred as Rita in a production Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre produced by the Steppenwolf Theater Company. [3]FRANK Found a culture have you, Rita? Found a better song to sing have you? No-you've found a different song, that's all-and on your lips it's shrill and hollow and tuneless. Oh, Rita, Rita... 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.

Both Educating Rita (1983) and Shirley Valentine (1989) [18] became feature films with Michael Caine, Julie Walters and Pauline Collins all receiving Oscar nominations for their respective roles, as did Russell for his Educating Rita screenplay. [19] [20] Levin, Angela. "Willy Russell: 'I want to talk about things that matter'", Daily Telegraph, 15 October 2012; accessed 15 October 2014. FRANK When his paper was returned to him, his professor had written on it, 'And God gives out the marks'. At college, he began writing drama and, in 1972, took a programme of two one-act plays to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where they were seen by writer John McGrath, who recommended Russell to the Liverpool Everyman, which commissioned the adaptation, When The Reds…, Russell's first professional work for theatre. [2] Career [ edit ]

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Frank is a perfect foe: a professor and has-been poet, who has more interest in the contents of the whiskey bottles than the contents of the books that line his office shelves, and behind which he stashes the drink. He’s cynical and has taken this special student only for the money. the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy for Educating Rita (1980) and for Shirley Valentine (1988) Russell has written songs since the early 1960s, and has written the music to most of his plays and musicals. He also co-wrote "The Show", the theme song to the 1985 ITV drama series Connie, which became a top 30 hit for vocalist Rebecca Storm. His first album, Hoovering the Moon, was released in 2003. The next lesson, Rita does not have her essay, which annoys Frank. Rita reveals Denny burned all her things though out of anger because she is changing and trying to improve herself. Denny feels scared and betrayed by her changes, and believes that they already have choices. Rita feels trapped by what he thinks are choices, however, saying that they aren’t real choices.