Educating Rita
Written by
Willy Russell
Directed by
Sue Goodfield
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15 - 22 October 2005
Doors open 6:45pm
Performance 7:30pm
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"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."
Willy Russell
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. The play explores the relationship between student and tutor.
Much of the comedy arises from Rita's fresh, unschooled reaction to the classics of English literature, but she is never patronised by the lecturer, who recognises from his own experience that education is a means of escape from one's own circumstances.
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