Educating Rita
Educating Rita is a play about a woman who is determined to get a liberal education which will open a full new life for her. Educating Rita was a play written by Willy Russell in 1985 and the play is set at a university in the North of England. There are many themes that run through the play including: Personal relationships, Educating, Contrasts and clashes of culture and Differences. Willy Russell was born in Liverpool from a working class background. As a youngster Russell first was a hairdressers apprentice but later made and ran his own salon. Only when Russell became an adult did he begin to think about further education. Now Russell is a very famous play write and novelist and has constructed many fine plays and novels throughout his career including: the blood brothers, our day out and many more.
The leading characters in the play Rita follows Russell’s background we know this because Russell before himself was a hairdresser and then though about further education as does Rita. The Play has only two characters Frank and Rita and only one setting; Franks office at the Open University. This unique feature of Russell’s play is very effective in building a relationship between the audience and his main characters. By having only two characters he allows the audience to fully engage themselves in the lives and personalities of each character and understand them in depth. Furthermore by have only two main characters this makes the whole play easier to follow and understand since having several characters can be confusing.
Russell throughout the play gives us visual clues giving us a better description of the characters for example: as the scene unveils we see Frank is looking for something in his bookcase but we do not know what, he constantly takes the name famous writers and removes some books from the bookcase this makes the audience think what Frank is looking for; as frank retrieves his hidden whisky bottle from the bookcase the audience become eager to find out what influence the whisky bottle has on Frank’s life because he hides the bottle within his bookcase implying he doesn’t want people to see it. Also the actions and dialogue of both the characters also give us clues about the characters personality as when Rita walks in she is swearing and shouting this implies she is not very mannered in addition as Rita walks in she goes to Frank’s desk a dumps her bag on a chair beside it without asking showing that she doesn’t not know how to behave when meeting her tutor for the first time. Other characters are referred to like Julia who is Frank’s partner, Rita’s husband Denny and Trish Rita’s flat-mate but we never get to meet them, we only hear about them through Frank and Rita ; because of this Russell had to make the opening scene dramatically effective in order to engage the audience and to grasp their attention. Russell does exactly this by using very effective language and makes detailed descriptions of the scene setting; Russell also makes the opening scene effective as he makes the entrance of the main character Rita very dramatic and also builds up tension and suspense and always keeps us the audience thinking of what is going to happen next in the life of both the characters.
In Act one Scene 5 Frank is having a conversation on the phone to who we presume is his partner due to the language that Frank uses for example: “Darling”. During this conversation learn that Frank’s relation with his wife is not the best of relations because he says that “Of course I told you… But darling, you shouldn’t have prepared dinner should you? Because I said, I distinctly remember saying that I would be late… Yes. Yes I probably shall go to the pub afterwards. By these words Frank is trying to explain to his partner that he shall be late and shall go to the pub afterwards this also implies that Frank doesn’t want to go home as his relation may not be going well. Further in the conversation we find out that frank is only doing the Open University job because he needs money to go to the pub we know this because Frank says “oh god why did I take this on?... yes I suppose I did take it on to pay for my drink”. As the telephone conversation persists Frank begins to get annoyed” oh, for god’s sake, what is it? ... Yes well-erm – leave it in the oven …Look if you’re trying to induce some feeling of guilt in me over the prospect of burnt dinner you should have prepared something other than lamb and ratatouille” Frank now is irritated because of his partner trying to make him feel guilty that he is not coming home for dinner and she already has made it for him. Frank also tries to convince his partner that ratatouille cannot be burnt when he says “because darling I like my lamb done to the point of abuse and I even I know that ratatouille cannot be burned…Darling you could incinerate ratatouille and still it wouldn’t burn. Frank and his partner continue to discuss the matter about lamb and ratatouille and Frank doesn’t stop clarifying his point as he is obstinate to go to the pub and not home first. “What do you mean am I determined to go to the pub? … I do not need determination to get me into the pub…Look; I’ll have to go… there’s someone at the door. Yes, yes I promise... Just a couple of pints …Four. From the ending of the conversation we learn that franks partner has given up trying to persuade Frank to come home and lets him do what he wants. Frank’s sense of humour in the conversation is quite good as he jokes with his partner promising that he will only have a couple of pints Four, also he says that he will not need no determination to go to the pub .
