Frank goes on drinking and at the end of the scene when Rita asks him when they’re going to start he says he can’t teach her anything, because he’s a bad teacher who doesn’t like teaching when pubs are open because he likes drinking, he just wants to earn the money for drinks, he’s good for bad students but not for her because she deserves a better tutor, he adds he’d get another tutor for her and she leaves but immediately she bursts open the door and says she wants him as her tutor, she likes him because he’s a crazy heavy drinker who wants to throw students through the window and adds that next week she’ll bring her scissors and give him a hair cut to change his look of a geriatric hippie. He refuses but she insists and ignores his refusal.
SCENE 2:
Frank waits until he sees the door handle continuously turning. It is Rita oiling it for him.
She wanders around the room and comments how the room fits Frank, it’s a perfect mess she says (he calls it a “certain patina” →it reflects his personality).
She looks at the lawn through the window and speaks about the “proper” students, because that’s where they read or study when it’s sunny. She says she would have loved to go to a boarding or public school (fee-paying schools in Britain) but her mother said they were not for her as she was crazy (she was “off her cake”). Then Frank asks why she didn’t become a “proper student” and she says that the school she attended (with broken glasses and fights and knives etc.) was not the proper one to go on studying, the only ones who studied were the whimps, she didn’t want to be different from her mates. But inside her she knew there was something wrong, then she just played another record or bought another dress or chased another boy to stop worrying, to forget about her doubts; in this way she kept going until one day she stopped and asked herself if that was all she expected from life, at that moment she had to decide if she wanted a change of dress or a change in herself. So, she hasn’t had a new dress for 12 months now and will have a proper one the day she passes her first exam.
Franks starts correcting her first piece of writing about the book “Rubyfruit jungle” , he tries to explain to her that she has to be objective when criticizing something, it was mostly positive because she had put her sentiment in it but criticism has nothing to do with sentiment, it has to be supported by literary references.
Rita says that “Howard End” is crap for her because the author said he was not concerned with the poor (immoral ≠ amoral).
Frank tries to teach her how to interpret the book (author) without being sentimental to get a good mark in an exam. She hated the book and wants to work on something she likes but that won’t help her for the next exam at Xmas.
Suddenly she asks if he’s married, he says his wife is not relevant because they had split up, he wants to go on with the book (Howard End) but she asks for the reason, he says one day his wife said his work as a poet was exclusively related to their relationship so she left to give him another topic to write about but then he stopped writing. Rita wants to read some of his work, but Frank says she wouldn’t understand his poetry. She kept on asking about his life and Frank says he lives with a girl, Julia, who used to be his student, she’s tolerant, caring and admires him a lot but in spite of it he sometimes stops out and adds it’s not Julia’s fault, it’s him he’s not fond of (he doesn’t like himself) but Rita admires him and his way of talking; as he wants to go back to the book, she says it’s always the same story: teachers usually interrupt great conversation topics to turn them into a lesson (she remembers having seen a colourful bird in an outing and not telling her teacher because she would ask them to write a report on the bird), Frank admits they usually do that (like saying there’s something wrong with education) but he’s just there because she wants to get an education, he’d rather do thousand of different things with her instead of teaching. He wished she had been there 20 years before but realizing the present was then he wanted to go back to Forster (the author) as she refuses he gets mad at her, he says there’s a lot of work to do but if she wants to read only what she likes he doesn’t want to waste his time, she can go and buy a new dress and he can go to the pubs, then she accepts to go back to the boring book (jokingly she asks if the author’s repeated phrase “only connect” means he’s a frustrated electrician, she has a wonderful sense of humour and she makes Frank laugh even when he’s mad at her).
SCENE 3:
Rita wrote her first essay based on a reference to only one writer and one who wrote “pulp fiction” (easy to read but shallow novels). She also read two other books by well-known writers. Frank tries to teach her how to know the difference between literature and shallow novels that can be read but not mentioned in exams as reference.
SCENE 4:
Rita complains that she can’t understand “Howard End” but Frank wants to talk about her last essay in which she answered to the question on how to overcome the difficulties of staging Ibsen’s Peer Gynt by writing only” Do it on the radio”. Frank tells her that there are rules that she must follow when completing an exam and a clever answer is not only a clever one. She excuses herself by saying that she had a busy week at work and she could not study at home because Dennis doesn’t like it. Frank gives her another opportunity to answer the previous question in a complete way giving reasons and references. While writing Rita remembers one of her customers to whom she talked about Peer Gynt’s search for the meaning of life; in her class, she adds, almost everyone is looking for the meaning of life, almost everyone needs either Valium or beer to go from one day to the next, they won’t admit it but there’s something wrong with society, she says, there is violence and vandalism but it’s all covered by the Unions telling workers to ask for money and the media telling them how to spend it, it’s like buying another dress (when she was young) so as not to worry about real life issues (comparison).
She, then, tells him that going to those classes made her stronger, gave her a way out and helped her to go through the rest of the week even though Dennis was trying to stop her doing it, he wanted her to go to a pub with him instead of going to her tutorial, she says “it’s like drug addicts, they hate when one of them tries to break away (leave them). Unconsciously she was “connecting” (her dresses & the Media / addicts & her husband’s attitude) and it was what Forster (H. End) said all the time but she couldn’t understand, Frank points it out and she suddenly discovers the meaning of the book (there nobody connected). She was happy because Frank was so clever that he let her find it out on her own without him giving her the answer as in that way she understood it better.
Finally she wrote a very clever answer to the question of the essay, she wrote that the radio was the best option because as the author said it was a play for voices (not intended for the theatre) so if he had had the radio in his days he would have done it there.
SCENE 5:
Rita didn’t bring her essay because her husband had burnt her books and papers when he found out she was taking contraceptives to avoid getting pregnant. Frank was really sorry, not for the books but for her situation at home.
They started talking about her life and he asked if she wanted to leave that course but she said the course was the only thing that made her feel alive and she was not going to quit.
Frank offered to go to the pub to go on talking but she said she wanted to talk about Chekhov (she asked why he was considered a comic genius when his book was so sad); Frank took his bottle of whisky (hidden) and filled two glasses. Talking about Chekhov Frank asked her if she had ever gone to the theatre but she hadn’t so she suggested going that night and even when Frank didn’t like theatre and tried to find excuses (eg.Julia) she convinced him and they went to see an amateur performance of an O. Wilde play (he’d have rather gone to the pubs but as she was so excited he accompanied her).
SCENE 6:
It was early. Frank goes into his room and starts eating a sandwich when suddenly Rita bursts in, it was her break and she rushed to his place to tell him she had gone to see a real play on a real stage theatre performed by professional actors. It was a Shakespeare’s play (Macbeth), she was so excited, it had been fantastic, and she had even bought the book after seeing it!
She just wanted to tell him about it and had to rush back because she had a customer with perm lotion and if she didn’t hurry there would be another “tragedy”, she said. Frank explains that “drama tragedy” is inevitable, pre-ordained, she could have warned the actor to stop but it would have been useless (not just because they’d have thrown her out) because he forced himself to his inevitable end but her customer (just like a man who was killed by a tree in the road) could have a tragic end but it could be avoided. She’s amazed by his comments, she wished she could think the way he does but it’s still difficult for her.
Before leaving she invites him to visit an Art Gallery the following day, he accepts and invites her to go to his house on Saturday as they (Julia and he) were having some friends for dinner. He accepted but was not sure if Dennis would go with her.
She wondered what she would wear for such a special night.
SCENE 7:
Rita didn’t go to Frank’s party but left a note in the letter-box saying “Sorry couldn’t come” so in the following class Frank asks her for the reason (an apology). She tells him she had had an argument with Denny before going, then she took the wrong bus, tried on six different dresses and none of them was suitable and bought the wrong sort of wine so when she saw everybody in his house laughing and drinking she understood she didn’t fit there, so she went to the pub where Denny and her mother and friends were, they were all singing, she tried to join them but she didn’t fit there either. She felt like a freak (didn’t fit anywhere). Frank told her she didn’t have to dress up or buy wine, people in his house would see a charming, delightful, funny girl in her, but she didn’t want that, she wanted to be able to have a serious conversation with them but she thought they would laugh at her and she didn’t want to be the court jester. Frank got angry, he said she wasn’t invited to be laughed at, he just wanted her company and if she couldn’t believe that she had to visit a psychologist.
Finally, she said she had come back to his class because she felt ok with him in that room and wanted to improve her education to be able to find her place.
SCENE 8:
Rita comes into the room holding a suitcase while Frank is correcting her essay on “Macbeth”.
When he sees her suitcase, he asks her what it was for, she explains she is moving to her mother´s because she had left Denny as he wanted her to stop studying to have a baby, she was going to her mum’s for a week then she would have to rent a flat.
She starts crying and Frank asks her to sit down and to talk about that situation but she wants to talk about her essay and what it was like, she insisted so Frank says it was wonderful in itself because it showed the passion the play had inspired her but in terms of passing the exam it was worthless.
She says “if it’s worthless it’s crap” and rips it up, she asks Frank to be sincere and firm to tell her everything as it is without feeling sorry or pity because she wanted to be as good as the proper students.
Here Frank for the first time tells her he’s not sure about educating her because she was unique and valuable and she would have to change to write proper essays but she wants to change and wants him to be demanding enough so as to make her a great student because she didn’t mind re-doing works as she wanted to learn, to know, to change her life, to become a different person, that idea was the only valuable thing in her life, she emphasized.
ACT 2 - SCENE 1:
Rita comes from a Summer School Course in London, totally excited for how many new friends she has made, how many things she has done (threatre, pubs, markets) and how much she has learnt. Her tutors there, were wonderful and have taught her a lot.
Frank had gone to France but was not as excited and happy as Rita was about his vacation, he had argued with Julia and had found the place hot.
Rita had a new flat mate now (Trish) and liked her a lot, she was classy and had taste, she felt young among students who also liked her, she had given up smoking, too.
She bought Frank a pen as a souvenir which said that could only be used to write poetry.
Frank wanted to work on William Blake (English poet) but Rita knew him by heart because she had worked on all his work during the Summer Course. Frank kept on drinking and Rita said it would kill him, but he didn’t care, he would not be reformed by her because sooner or later she would leave and he would start drinking again, she said she would not leave. Frank said he would be glad to see her “growing” in her knowledge and leaving because he wouldn’t keep her in that room forever.
SCENE 2:
Rita came late talking in a bizarre way, she said Trish told her that to talk about poetry she had to have a beautiful voice. Frank didn’t like it and made her stop.
She was late because she had been in the lawn talking with some students who were speaking about an author she knew well so she gave them a class about him and they loved her. One of them, called Tiger (Tyson) had invited her to go to France with all of them. Frank said she couldn’t go because of her exams and their result.
When she started talking about Tiger again Frank was annoyed and said he wouldn’t correct her essays if she was going to fall in love and leave but she said he was crazy, she was not going to fall in love with anyone.
Frank said her last essay was just like those essays written by the proper University students.
SCENE 3:
Frank gets in totally drunk, he had given a lecture in that state and the authorities had warned him that that was the last time he would behave in that way or he would have to leave.
Rita didn’t like seeing him like that, she said he had to think about the students, it was not good for them to see him like that (he gave them “her” meaning of assonance→getting the rhyme wrong) but he didn’t care for those stupid students.
Rita wanted to leave, he couldn’t give her a tutorial in that state. But he insisted on her staying and she did. He talked about her essay on W. Blake, she had found a second meaning in one of his poems (Blossom); she said he talked about sexuality in it but Frank thought it was a simple poem with no second meaning.
She didn’t agree and asked for a possible mark her work would get in an exam, he said it would be a good one. That was all she wanted to hear, she said that now she was able to interpret poetry in her own way, she didn’t have to share all his points of view, she had her own mind.
He agreed but asked her to be careful. She didn’t like his warnings, she knew how to take care of herself, just because she could understand and she’d learnt he was warning her, now it was her time to walk alone and didn’t want him behind her to watch her steps.
He said he just cared for her, she also cared for him but wanted to be more independent now.
SCENE 4:
Rita came late again because she and the students talked about Shakespeare, it was too late and she wanted to leave promising she would be on time the following class.
Frank stopped her and told her that as she was so late he’d phoned the hairdresser’s and found out she didn’t work there anymore. She said she thought she had already told him about that and that she was working in a bistro now.
Frank was hurt because he said there was a time when Rita used to tell him everything but Rita didn’t think it was important and sick and tired of having to care for insignificant details, she liked being with the people at the bistro and with students because they talked about important things, she found them young, passionate and especially Tiger was fascinating for her.
Frank thought Rita was getting tired of his classes, too, but she said she wasn´t that night, she had to go to the threatre with Trish and there were many things happening in her life at the moment but she would not stop coming, Frank said if she wanted to stop going she would pass the exam anyway and started drinking again.
Rita saw his glass and said that if he stopped drinking that he would be able to talk about things that mattered and it would be worth coming there.
Frank wondered if she could recognize what mattered, she answered that she could understand literary criticism now so he gave her some sheets of poetry written by him for her to criticize without subjectivity or sentimentality.
SCENE 5:
Rita comes the following day (not the following week) to tell Frank that his poetry was brilliant, witty profound and full of style. Trish (her roommate) also thought he was brilliant. Frank didn’t seem praised; he said it was lucky that he didn’t show her those poems before, when she first came in that room.
Rita agreed, she said she wouldn’t have been able to understand his allusions then.
He said he was proud of the job he had done on her (very ironically), he added he should change his name to “Mary Shelley” because she was the author of Frankenstein (it was another allusion).
He said that pile of worthless, talent less allusion could be recognized as rubbish (shit) by anyone with common sense. She disagrees but Frank doesn’t expect her to believe him now that she “can” understand literature and asks her to leave because he can’t hear her any longer.
She gets very angry after his words and says that he couldn’t hear that she had become and educated woman and didn’t need him anymore because she had a room with books, she knew what clothes to wear, what wine to buy, what plays to see and what books to read.
Frank said she had walked a long way for so little, she hadn’t found a better culture (song) and calls her Rita. That last words infuriated her so much that she told him she was not Rota any longer; the only stupid who called her Rita was him, she leaves and he keeps asking what her name was then Virginia, Charlotte, Emily? Etc.
SCENE 6:
Frank is asking for Rita or Susan White to somebody on the phone. Time goes by.
He phones some other place and talks with Trish and tells her that he had entered Rita for her examination and would like her to call to tell her the date and time and other details.
SCENE 7:
Rita enters and puts a Christmas card next to others in Frank’s room, she lights a cigarette (back to smoking) and opens the door just when Frank was coming in with two big bags where he puts some books from the bookcase. She wished him Merry Christmas and asks him why he’s moving all his books, he said they were sending him for two years to Australia because of his behaviour, he was going there alone, suddenly he asks her why she was there, she says she came to thank him for entering her for the exam and to tell him he was a good teacher. When she was doing the exam she remembered all Frank had said and realised he was right, her head was full of empty phrases but it was only her fault, she was so hungry that didn’t see things clearly, like Trish, she thought Trish was so cool but one night she found her trying to kill herself, it was senseless, she used to eat healthy food to live longer and one day, all of a sudden, decides to stop living. Then she read the first question again, it was one that Frank had taught her about Peer Gynt and decided to write it correctly, she chose to write the right answer because of all Frank had given her so she passed the exam and came back to tell him that he was a great teacher. Frank offered her to go to Australia with him but Tiger had asked her to go to France (she knew he was stupid but had never been abroad) and her mother asked her to be there at Christmas. She didn’t know what she was going to do but she would choose, she would make a decision, she could choose now, she had choices.
Frank gave her a dress he had bought for her, he was drunk when he bought it but it was intended for an educated woman.
Rita finds out that she had always taken from Frank but she has never given him anything so she decides to give him something, she asks him to sit down, she takes some scissors and tells him she is going to take 10 years off him. He sits down really confused.
She gives him a hair cut (and cuts his ear).
The End
Black out
