The relationship between Frank and Rita
The relationship between Frank and Rita Frank and Rita appear to be complete opposites. On the surface, they couldn't be more different. They come from two contrasting social backgrounds - Frank is a well-educated man of middle-upper class. Rita is an uneducated working-class girl. Their jobs go from one intellectual extreme to the other - Frank is a university professor while Rita works as a hairdresser. However, Frank and Rita have more in common than we first realise. Rita is discontented with her present life - she feels incomplete, like she's missed out on something. She feels that the so-called 'working class culture' she was brought up in is hollow and meaningless. Rita is determined to get the education she never got, to raise her standards of living, and also to raise her from her state of ignorance to one of intellectual and social confidence. She looks down on herself and the culture she belongs to, but is optimistic that she can learn her way into a better way of life. She believes that freedom will come with education; therefore Frank can give her this freedom by educating her. Frank is also unhappy with his existence. He has everything Rita wants from life but wishes he didn't. He turns to drink to make living in the culture he hates more bearable. He doesn't want Rita to experience the same thing, which is why he doesn't want to teach her. He
Educating Rita - The play is essentially about the impact of education on thelives of two people and it therefore does not need to distract theaudience with Rita and Frank's other relationships and concerns.Having them as the only characters on stage also
The play is essentially about the impact of education on the lives of two people and it therefore does not need to distract the audience with Rita and Frank's other relationships and concerns. Having them as the only characters on stage also highlights the depth and intensity of Rita and Frank's relationship. It could be argued that the single room set does not give the audience enough of a sense of the social context of the two characters, but this is more than made up for by the incidents that they narrate about their lives outside Frank's study. The single set represents Frank's personality and position in the intellectual elite. From its description in the opening stage directions, it is a typical don's room; lined with books, strewn with papers and decorated with a 'good print of a nude religious scene'. But Frank's first actions on stage undermine the high intellectual impression created by the room. He is searching his bookshelves not for a book, for but a bottle, which he duly finds behind the highly respectable Dickens. When Rita eventually enters after her struggles with the door (symbolic perhaps of the obstacles placed on her road to enlightenment) she comments perceptively on the painting that, for all its value as art, is still just an excuse to look at a naked woman's body. In Scene 2 Rita admires the room's appearance in spite of the fact that it is a mess.
Blood Brothers
> "Well how come you got everything...and I got nothing". This quote by Mickey highlights the relationship between class and opportunity which is what this essay is going to be focusing on. Willy Russell is a modern playwright but throughout history these themes have appeared in literature, for example world war one often revels the fact that men of a more lower class were sent to the front line whereas men from a wealthy class made all the decisions. The playwright uses a number of techniques to make the message accessible to the audience. Some of these include dramatic devices, language and the overall content of the play. The relationship between class and opportunity is that the opportunities you receive is based upon the class you are represented by. > Blood Brothers is a powerful illustration of how divisions in social class can affect the opportunity an individual has in life. It is a tragic musical written by the fantastic writer Willy Russell. Mrs Johnstone, a lonely woman whose husband has abandoned her and a houseful of mouths to feed, learns she is expecting AGAIN, however what she doesn't learn till later on is that she is having twins which adds to the life problems that her life comes to struggle with. She works for Mrs Lyons who is desperate for kid s but isn't able to have any her self, when she finds out about Mrs Johnstone's pregnancy she uses it to her
Shirley Valentine Extra Scene
Joe and Shirley are sitting by the sea sipping wine and the waves are lapping at their feet. There is an uptight atmosphere as the sun begins to set. Joe I think you should come home strait away Shirley. I feel that you are not the same woman you have your head up in the clouds. Shirley I may have my head up in the clouds Joe but I'm happy high in the sky, I'm no longer that boring woman who spent all day looking after her husband I'm Shirley Valentine again. As the sun begins to set the camera pulls up to reveal a shadowed figure walking down Mykanos bay. As the shadowed figure gets closer, we are able to see it is Costas. Shirley looks up and tries to divert Joe. Shirley Come on Joe let me show you the sites you know you and me together. We could go see the windmills up on the hill or go see the small bay on the other side of the island. Joe You're a bloody loon Shirley you aint changed one bit. It's eight o' clock at night. Shirley I know but wouldn't it be romantic you and me under the stars sipping a carafe of wine together. Joe No it would not Shirley I have traveled all this way to find you and it's a Thursday so I want me tea now. Because its Thursday I want me usual steak and chips, don't think you have got away with it just because your in some backwards country, don't forget your vows Shirley Bradshaw when you married me you agreed to look after me in
Shirley's monologe - Shirley Valentine.
Shirley Valentine Hello Wall here I am in my old clothes as always, at the same time of day and doing the same thing, as always but today there's a little difference.... A 42-year-old married woman cooking for her lazy arsed husband who complains about working all day. That's how I've been feeling these past years of my life. I spend most of my afternoon cooking whatever he wants. And guess what! Yep you're right! Here I am in the kitchen cooking for him. The only good thing about this time of day I get to talk to you. Even though I talk to you through out the rest of the day too. Today I'm going to accomplish something, well...... hopefully! Joe is almost home and he is in for a big treat today. He's been such a good boy he deserves to eat chips and egg on Thursday instead of steak on Thursday. What surprise he's going to have he'll probably think I'm having an affair as it isn't his birthday he'll wonder why the surprise. I'm tired of having set food for each day of the week, if he wants to eat his tea he's going to eat whatever I want to cook him not what he want otherwise he can buy and cook his own tea and ill do mine. But if I know my Joe he'd rather starve than do his own tea, so this will rattle his cage. He'll realise that I don't want a life that's a monotonous routine. I learnt that on countdown yesterday! What do you think Wall? Ohhh
If you were directing 'Educating Rita', how would you seek to achieve the humour for an Audience
If you were directing 'Educating Rita', how would you seek to achieve the humour for an Audience? 'Educating Rita' is a humorous play that was written by Willy Russell in 1979, based on his own life. It is set in Liverpool and depicts the perseverance of a working class, 26-year-old hairdresser with no qualifications called Susan, or as she is called throughout the play, 'Rita', as she tries to 'discover herself' by participating in an English literature course at the Open University. Her lecturer, who is from a more middle class background, Frank, is somewhat of an unorthodox one; he is frequently found to be drunk and, during one lecture, he is so drunk that he falls off of the rostrum in the hall! This erratic behaviour leads to him being sent to Australia for two years. In this essay, I am going to discuss how I might direct this play so that I achieve humour for the audience. There are four main aspects that create the humour in the play 'Educating Rita': the first of which is the comedy of the character. This is when a character in the play is perceived as being humorous by the way that the character speaks or a trait that the character has. When Rita enters Frank's classroom in the first scene, she blurts out: "I'm coming in, aren't I? It's that stupid bleedin' handle on the door. You wanna get it fixed!" As director, I would have the actress playing Rita fall
Educating Rita Coursework
English Coursework Comment on Rita's changing use of language throughout the play 'Educating Rita' and what this tells the audience about this character. 'Educating Rita' is a play set and written in the 1980's by Willy Russel. The only two characters in the play are Frank- a university lecturer- and Rita- an Open University student. Act 1 scene 1 opens in Frank's study at a northern university- the only setting throughout the play. As the play has only one setting and two characters, it shows its one aim- to allow the audience to explore and develop more of an understanding in the characters and their changes. Act 1 scene 1 opens with Frank talking to his partner/ girlfriend on the phone. He uses standard English; "I distinctly remember saying that I would be late" This language implies to the audience that Frank is well educated, middle class man "lamb and ratatouille" also shows his class. In Frank's office there is a window looking into the lawn. This is important in the play as it symbolizes freedom. In the first act, Rita can only look out and imagine what it's like beyond it- with all the proper students. When Rita enters after having symbolic difficulty with opening the door; "the door swings open revealing Rita" there is a contrast shown to the audience in their use of language; "I'm comin' in aren't I? It's that stupid bleedin' handle on the door.
Shirley Valentine
Shirley Valentine In 'Shirley Valentine' Willy Russell presents the transformation of a stifled middle-aged women. The dramatic techniques used in play help the audience to understand the importance of Shirley's transformation were monologues, flashbacks and voiceovers. At the end of the play the audience would be pleased for Shirley for the reason that she has changed so much and she is very happy because she can make a start to her life. The play, Shirley valentine was written by Willy Russell. His life experiences influenced through the play. He couldn't work in many places because he wasn't a qualified person. As Shirley was a housewife she couldn't work anywhere. Willy Russell bring into being play writing and he enjoyed it. Shirley went Greece and found a job they're which she loves doing. Willy Russell worked in a Saloon so he would have in sighting about the lives of women. This play is influenced by kitchen sink drama, this play is about Shirley who is an example of a stereo typical house wife, working class woman, she does things like shopping, cleaning, cooking and taking care of the children and so on. Shirley is also an example of a pessimistic woman who is constantly thinking that disappointing things are going to occur. Russell Satirise feminism in the play through Jane's attitude, saying men are only after one thing, which is sex, "Jane - All men are
Blood Brothers interview with Willy Russell
Mr. Russell, welcome to our program, Writers' Question Time. Could you briefly tell us what your play is about? Thank you for inviting me to the show. "Blood Brothers" is about the story of twin brothers separated at birth. The twins' working-class mother - Mrs. Johnston - is too poor to keep both twins, so gives one to her very rich employer Mrs. Lyons, who cannot have children of her own. Mrs. Johnston is extremely superstitious, and Mrs. Lyons discovers this early on when Mrs. Johnston finds shoes on the table. Mrs. Lyons takes advantage of this, and tells Mrs. Johnston 'that if either twin learns he was one of a pair they shall both die immediately!' Until the twins are about eight years of age, Mrs. Lyons and Mrs. Johnston have no problem keeping their secret shut away. They then find that the twins have met, and have become very good friends without realising they are related to each other. Mrs. Lyons persuades her husband to move the family away from the city to the countryside. Later in the play, Mrs. Johnston and her children get moved from the slums, closer to the house of Mrs Lyons. As the twins discover each other once again, Mrs. Lyons' mental health begins to deteriorate, and paranoia starts to kick in. With Mrs. Johnston, anxious as ever that her secret will slip out, the general mood of the play becomes more sinister, and the ending is tragic. Mr. Russell,
Educating Rita - Write about Russell's treatment of self-discovery and of its importance in the lives of the play's characters.
(A) "RITA: See, I don't want a baby yet. See, I wanna discover meself first. Do you understand that?" Write about Russell's treatment of self-discovery and of its importance in the lives of the play's characters. The idea of self-discovery is a theme that runs throughout Educating Rita, demonstrating how it can be a personal mission as well as an accidental achievement in life. Both Frank and Rita, as well as the other, more minor characters, embark on this journey as Rita begins her Open University course. When Rita begins her the English Literature course, she is raring to go and wants to know "everything". She also puts in words, her personal desire for self-discovery. "I wanna discover meself." Rita knew from the beginning that she was on a mission and knew where she was going. Frank on the other hand, is quite content with his way of life and finds the idea of a "silly woman's attempts to get into the mind of Henry James" highly amusing although it does interrupt the monotony of his potentially extremely boring and predictive lifestyle. Russell demonstrates the idea of "self-discovery" through Rita by showing the way in which Rita has progressed during the play. At the beginning, Rita is the innocent student who wants "choices". She feels that she will be able to escape from the vicious circle that exists in working class society. The first signs of Rita's