This was the production's first London West End revival.

įrom 26 March to, 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. The production was directed by Bruce Paltrow and was critically acclaimed with critics touting McKenzie's performance as 'wonderfully beguiling and irrepressible.one of the best performances of the year'. įrom June to July 2001, the Williamstown Theatre Festival mounted a production of Educating Rita at the Nikos Stage starring Jacqueline McKenzie as Rita and Edward Herrmann as Frank. In 1987, Laurie Metcalf starred as Rita in a production Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre produced by the Steppenwolf Theater Company. 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. The play was adapted by Russell for radio in 2009. The play was adapted by Russell for a 1983 film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters, directed by Lewis Gilbert. The play borrows from the 1913 George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion, itself based upon archetypes from Greek myth. The play deals with the concept of freedom, change, Britain's class system, the shortcomings of institutional education, and the nature of self-development and of personal relationships. The play ends as Frank, sent to Australia on a sabbatical, welcomes the possibilities of the change. 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. However, Frank's bitterness and cynicism return as he notices Susan beginning to adopt the pretensions of the university culture he despises. 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. Frank is a middle-aged, alcoholic career academic who has taken on the tutorship to pay for his drink. The play opens as 'Rita' meets her tutor, Frank, for the first time.

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. In the play Frank has no surname, but when the film was made he became Dr. The plays follows the relationship between a 26-year-old Liverpudlian working class hairdresser and Frank, a middle-aged university lecturer, during the course of a year.

It is a play for two actors set entirely in the office of an Open University tutor.Ĭommissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Educating Rita premièred at The Warehouse, London, in June 1980 starring Julie Walters and Mark Kingston. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice.Pygmalion-style drama about a hairdresser's literary quest.Įducating Rita is a stage comedy by British playwright Willy Russell. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice.

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