What do we learn about Rita’s School days?
Rita didn’t enjoy her school, she didn’t learn while at school because if she did she would have to change her friends. She could have learnt but she was loyal to her friends. She conformed to low expectations, even though she knew the answer she didn’t say because of her friends. “ Nah, just normal y’ know, borin’ ripped-up books, broken glass everywhere, knives an’ fights. An’ that was just in the staff room. Nah they tried their best I suppose, telling us we stood a chance if we studied.
“I saw this fantastic bird, all coloured it was, like dead out of place round our way… I was just gonna shout an’ tell Miss but this kid next to me said keep your mouth shut or she’ll make us write an essay on it.” She couldn’t share things with the teacher because other kids thought they would have to write an essay on it.
What impressions do we get of Denny?
In At 1, we can see that Denny and Rita don’t get on very well. “I hardly ever talk when I’m there.” At home Rita gets bored because she couldn’t talk to Denny. “People don’t split up because of things like that. Because of literature.” This is ironic because we find out that Rita and Denny split up because Rita is going to Franks to learn about literature. We find that Denny has a short temper and can be violent “Denny found out I was on the pill again… he burnt all my books”
In the very last scene of act 1, we find out that Rita has left Denny because “ Rita enters slowly, carrying a suitcase.”
How in scene 5 & 7 do we see some role reversal between Frank & Rita?
In scene 5, we can see some role reversal between Rita & Frank. Rita wants to talk about literature, instead of life “Why was Chekhov a comic genius?” whilst, Frank wants to talk about life instead of literature. “Rita, don’t you think that for a night we could give the class a miss?” Rita now has the sensitive role, while Frank is more bothered about talking about life and going to the pub “We’ll talk about Chekhov and pretend this is the pub”
In scene 7, we see another role reversal with Rita’s feelings. In earlier scenes Rita was more bothered about the inside instead of how she looked “But if you want to change y’ have to do it from the inside, don’t y’?” But now she is worried about what to wear “ I was thinking’, what to wear… I tried on five different dresses. They all looked bleedin’awful”
Why doesn’t Rita go to Frank’s party?
Rita didn’t go to franks party because she was unsure about how his friends would see her. She was also worried about her clothes “what shall I wear?” even though before she wasn’t bothered about her appearance. She also thought that Frank and his friends would talk about literature, Rita had forgotten what she had been taught. “ I can’t remember if it was Wilde who’s witty an’ Shaw who was Shavian or who the hell wrote Howard’s End.” “It wouldn’t have mattered if you walked in with a bottle of Spanish plonk…it was Spanish” so Rita didn’t even buy the right wine for the occasion.
What did Rita’s mum mean buy ”a better song to sing”?
When Rita’s mum says, “Because we could sing better songs than those” she is saying that she could have done better in her life and she is hoping Rita does better than her. It is a metaphor for Rita’s life.
Choose 2 scene openings and explain how Rita’s entrance shows her mood.
In scene 6, “Rita bursts through the door out of breath” this shows that Rita is excited and cant wait to tell someone about her theatre experience, “I had to come an’ tell y’, Frank last night, I went to the theatre, a proper on, a professional theatre”
In scene 7 “Rita enters, goes straight to the desk and slings her bag on the back of her chair, she sits in the chair and unpacks her back… she arranges them as before” from this we can see that there is clearly some tension between Rita and Frank. This is because she didn’t turn up for Frank’s party. She tries her best to act normal. “Now I don’t mind, two empty seats at the dinner table, it means more of the vino for me” Frank tries to calm the tension by making a joke.