Write a letter to an actress playing the role of Rita in a Production of Educating Rita at the West End. In this letter comment on how the character changes between Acts 1 and 2.

Educating Rita

Dear Miss Walters

It has recently come to my attention that you have been cast to perform the Part of ‘Rita’ in a West End version of the play ‘Educating Rita’.

As a director my job is to study and monitor the actions and behaviour of certain characters in various plays in order to direct the actors under my supervision. Therefore the reason that I have chosen to get in contact with you is because I feel that it is my duty as a director to inform aspiring actors such as yourself on the complex structure of this wonderful play.

The basis of this letter is to give you an idea of how the character of Rita changes very dramatically between acts one and two, and how this will relate to the way in which her character must be performed.

The opening scene when we first meet Rita, gives us a lot of what we need to know about her character at the time. In this scene she is very chatty and very coarse in the things she says. She has no problem in saying what is on her mind. An example of the way in which she says what is on her mind is when, in the opening scene she comments on an erotic picture that is hanging up in Frank’s office, she says:

“Look at the tits on that”

This is not usually how you would comment on a painting, you would say that it was beautiful, imaginative, or something to that effect.

I feel that it is important for an actor to really capture the personality of the character that they are playing; therefore I feel that it is important for you to understand the way in which Rita would come across to you if you were to meet her.

Rita has a bubbly and vibrant personality, she would seem to upper class people as ‘common’. She is very outward and shortens most of her words. Her Liverpudlian accent is one of her most redeeming features, because the way she talks and the way she says things can give us a great incite to what her character is like.

Rita is not happy with her life, she is being pressured by her husband and family to have a baby, but she wants to ‘discover’ herself first. She wants to get an education and broaden her horizons. She wants to be able to have a choice with what she does with her life, which is why she has enrolled into an Open University course, studying Literature.

If we learn to understand Rita’s situation then we might be able to gain an insight into the way she would think about issues and the way in which she would approach certain situations, for example, when Rita says to Frank:

“You are my teacher – an’ you’re gonna bleedin’ well teach me.”

This shows us that she wants to learn; she wants to be taught by Frank, and the tone of voice suggests that she is determined to learn, which is mirrored by the fact that she feels that she is trapped with her home life, and getting an education will help her to make some more decisions in her life.

The second major point that I feel I should bring to your attention when studying the character of Rita is the way in which she talks.

Rita comes from a working class background; this has been reflected by the words she uses and the way in which she shortens them.

In Act 1 we see Rita acting her normal self, speaking with her very distinctive Liverpudlian accent, we also witness Rita using words like ‘y’ instead of ‘you’ and ‘wanna’ instead of ‘want to’. To Rita at the time she probably has no intention of changing the way she speaks.

As we move into Act 2, we see Rita’s speech change dramatically. Rita now uses full pronunciation of all of her words, and is trying to speak ‘correctly’.

The change of the way in which Rita speaks has come about because Rita has recently had a new roommate called Trisha. Rita tells Frank that Trisha has told her:

“There is not a lot of point in discussing beautiful literature in an ugly voice”.

This gives the audience a sense of just how much of an important influence Trisha is to Rita, enough to make her change the way that she speaks. To get a sense of how much of a dramatic improvement their is to the way that Rita speaks, the audience can also take into account the fact that Frank describes Rita as a ‘Dalek’ (A robot from the hit TV series Doctor Who) this implies that to Frank, because Rita has changed the way she speaks she now sounds silly, or as Frank described it, like a robot.

This is important to remember when playing the part of Rita because when Rita speaks about Trisha she would probably speak in a very admirable tone, giving the sense that she thinks a lot of Trisha and that she is very important in her life.

Apart from the way in which Rita pronounces her words, there is also an improvement in the things that she discusses.

For example, in Act 1, when asked by Frank does Rita know of ‘Yates’ Rita replies ‘The Wine lodge’, when in fact who Frank really meant was the Poet Yates. This is a ...

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Apart from the way in which Rita pronounces her words, there is also an improvement in the things that she discusses.

For example, in Act 1, when asked by Frank does Rita know of ‘Yates’ Rita replies ‘The Wine lodge’, when in fact who Frank really meant was the Poet Yates. This is a typical example of the fact that Rita is not very knowledgeable about Poetry and the things that educated people discuss in general.

When the play advances into Act 2 this all changes, Rita now knows quite a lot about Poetry, Book authors, and about other Intellectual topics. This is mainly due to the fact that she has been studying with Frank on top of going to summer school. Now when Frank discusses a Poet with Rita e.g. when Frank shows Rita a poem by William Blake, Rita is already familiar with his work, and quotes part of one of his poems from memory. This shows us that Rita is no longer uneducated, in fact it is quite the opposite, Rita is now fairly confident with her knowledge, and as we find out in Act 2 Scene 3, when Rita and Frank are discussing a particular poem, Rita says to Frank:

“I am not an idiot now, Frank – I don’t need you to hold my hand as much… I can – I can do things on me own more now”.

Rita feels that she does not need Frank’s help as much any more because she has managed to learn enough to be able to have an intelligent conversation or to mix with other people who are educated. When Rita says this to Frank it gives the audience a semi inclination that the relationship between Frank and Rita is slowly becoming less stable, and is gradually fading away as Rita becomes more educated.

The way in which understanding how Rita and Franks Relationship is slowly breaking down will help an actress such as yourself, is because the fact that Rita and Frank are becoming further apart will almost certainly be reflected in the way that Rita talks to Frank. She may speak to him with a slight impatience in her voice, or with a tone that suggests she will not sit back and let frank say something which she does not agree with.

Another way in which Rita changes which may be worth discussing, is the fact that in Act 1 when Rita first meets Frank, Rita discovers that Frank Smokes and Drinks scotch, in fact Rita says to Frank:

“Y’ wanna be careful with that stuff it kills y’ brain cells”.

Even though Rita knows that Frank drinks scotch, she is not trying to change him at all e.g. by telling him to quit drinking scotch, or by telling him to drink something different. In actual fact Rita herself agrees to have a drink of scotch. This suggests to the audience that although Rita is aware of the dangers of drinking scotch, at that point in time she is not that worried about it. She even describes people who give up smoking as ‘cowards’ because they are afraid of getting cancer.

If we now compare this to Act 2, when Rita has now become more educated, she tells Frank that she has given up smoking, this contradicts her ‘coward’ theory, and also suggests that because she has now become more educated she realises that giving up smoking in order to prevent Cancer is not be a coward at all.

Rita also now tries, although unsuccessfully, to change Frank by saying to him when she sees him drinking:

“You still on that stuff”

This indicates that because Rita is now more concerned with the dangers of smoking and drinking, she thinks that Frank should also give up. Franks comments on this change in Rita’s personality by saying to Rita:

“I thought you weren’t going to try and change me?”

This implies that Frank has noticed a change in Rita’s personality and is questioning it.

Because all of the play is based in Franks office, Rita’s change of personality becomes even more of a focus point throughout the play. Between Acts 1 and 2 we only gather information on how Rita has changed by the things that she says, therefore it is up to the audience to piece together the rest of the information involving her overall transformation from a normal, (in her mind) uneducated, working class life, into being a very knowledgeable, thought provoking women, who is gradually becoming more and more like the other students.

As an actress playing the part of Rita, I feel that it is important that you clearly identify the changes in Rita’s character, clearly illustrating the ever so slight changes to her personality every time she walks into Frank’s office. This is important to remember if you are to properly perform the role of Rita.

Another one of the key things to remember and focus upon when playing the part of Rita in this production, is the way in which her attitudes towards Frank and the World change as she gradually gets more and more educated.

In Act 1, at the beginning of the play, the character of Frank plays a huge part of Rita’s life; Rita is constantly looking towards him for support and guidance. Having a tutor like Frank is very useful to Rita, this is because Frank is very similar to Rita in a lot of ways. An example of this is when Frank says to Rita:

“My dear, it’s not your fault, just the luck of the draw that you got me; but get me you did. And the thing is, between you, me and the walls, I’m actually an appalling teacher.”

This gives the audience reason to suggest that Frank is also insecure about himself; just the same way as Rita is about feeling that she is Stupid.

The significance of the above quotation is that as Rita becomes further educated, her insecurities lessen, therefore turning her into a more confident person. However Franks feelings of insecurity has by this time turned into feelings of worry that his teaching has gradually helped to lose Rita’s uniqueness, therefore making her the same as the other students.

This is what causes Rita and Frank to give the impression that they are not getting on too well near the end of the play, because Franks feelings that Rita is changing too much, is not understood by Rita, because all she has ever wanted is to be like the other students and to be more educated.

As a result of this Rita gradually seems to disagree with Frank more and more as the play comes to a finish.

Rita’s attitudes to the world seem to be on a roller coaster ride throughout the play this is because In Act 2 Rita’s views of the world have changed quite drastically, but by the end of the play, after the attempted suicide of her flat mate Trisha, Rita’s view is partially reverted back to the way they were at the beginning of the play.

Things that Rita say e.g. “I tell them I’m a hairdresser, not a plastic surgeon” and “But these stuck up idiots I meet, they think they’re royalty just cos they don’t swear.”

These things suggest that Rita has a very Direct and to the point view of the world, she takes things, as she sees them. This is how Rita comes across at the beginning of the play.

In Act 2, Rita says these sorts of things:

“A room is like a plant” and “Well it’s certainly like a richer poem, isn’t it? If it’s interpreted in that way”

Here we see that Rita has now lost her unique, direct view of the world, and is now using silly analogies and long winded, indirect statements.

Whereas as the play comes to a close we seem that Rita now has some of her old characteristics back, when she says things like:

“But why do you care about details like that? It’s just boring insignificant detail” and “She spends half her life eatin’ wholefoods an’ health foods to make her live longer, an’ the other half tryin’ to kill herself.”

These quotes suggest that Rita is now looking at things from a direct point of view again, not trying to read between the lines and make them into something that they’re not.

In conclusion all of the quotations and evidence provided above imply to the reader that Rita does not really know who she is or what she wants, her personality does a sort of circular motion and she ends up where she started, the only advantage that she has gained is that she now has that choice with what she wants to do with her life, she can either follow the educated path or settle down and have a baby.

I hope this letter has been of some assistance to you,

Yours sincerely,

Tony Capon

Director

Tony Capon -