During the play the characters of ‘Rita’ and ‘Frank are the biggest demonstration of cultural difference. Rita represents the working class culture and stands for what they were, a class who strived to escape their dead end jobs and make a better life for themselves, Frank, on the other hand is the representation of the working class. Although some might say he is a disgrace to his culture he is a perfect example of the middle classes, someone who has it handed to them on a plate and they take it for granted.
These differences are first noticed at the beginning of the play, in ‘Rita’s’ opening scenes. She misses the ends off of her sentences that are usually grammatically in correct; she speaks in restricted code. Frank, the middle class man speaks in grammatically correct sentences and also uses, elaborate code.
Rita:“ It’s terrible these days, the money, isn’t it? With the inflation an’ that. You work for the ordinary university don’t y ‘? With the real students. The open university’s different isn’t it?"
Frank:“ It’s supposed to embrace a more comprehensive studentship yes.”
‘Russell’ uses this as a to portray the different classes, ‘Rita’s’ speech is used to represent the uneducated working class, this is achieved through the half words, we would say don’t you, and that but Rita uses “don’t y’” “an’ that”. Conversely Frank uses a more sophisticated sentence and is grammatically correct. He uses more interesting words and has a more extensive vocabulary than ‘Rita’.
‘Russell’ uses this speech difference to bring humour to the play; he does this about three or four lines into the play when ‘Frank’ tries to ask ‘Rita’ her name.
Frank: “You are?”
Rita: “What am I?”
The conversation continues in the same manner and it is the speaking at cross-purposes that brings humour to the conversation. ‘Rita’ takes ‘Franks question literally and begins asking what she is so ‘Frank’ becomes confused and starts asking what she is, so a simple question of what’s your name but in elaborate code confuses ‘Rita’ and if an audience in the theatre didn’t laugh then there is something wrong because this line made me laugh! And it is the small snippets of humour combined with other elements that earned ‘Educating Rita’ the best comedy award in 1980.
A huge part of the social issues in the play is to do with working class women’s roles. As a girl left school she was expected to marry young and have children soon after, that was the goal of life, but ‘Rita’ wants more and many things which happened at the time of the play would have ‘Rita’ to do what she did and give choice to women. The main one of these was the contraceptive pill, which was made available to women at the beginning of the 70’s. This gave a choice of when to have children and ‘Rita’ uses this to stop ‘Denny’ from getting her pregnant, because she wants a life of her own.
Rita: “I told him I’d only have a baby when I had a choice.”
‘Russell’ almost uses ‘Rita’ to promote the idea to young girls that they could have a life and make choices, this is also a good dramatic technique because many young ladies/girls in the audience at the play could have been thinking about what ‘Rita’ had achieved and think to themselves that they could do that. Also all the boys knew that as soon as they left school they were off to work in the factories day in day out for the rest of there life’s, so maybe the play could have served as inspiration to men watching it as well.
Both ‘Frank and ‘Rita’ are extremely stereotypical of each other as well they both expect each other to act in a certain way. ‘Frank’ seems to believe that the working classes are content with their boring and predictable lives so ‘Rita’ sets him straight.
Rita: “ I just see everyone pissed or on the valium, tryin’ to get from one day to the next. Y’ darent say that round our way like cause they’re proud.”
‘Rita’ explains to ‘Frank’ that just because he might be able to walk past a pub and hear everyone singing it doesn’t mean that they are happy, it probably means they’re to drunk to care and they only do it because it’s the only way to get through the day and go on with life. ‘Frank’ comes back with a stereotypical and purely ignorant line.
Frank: “Yes but there’s nothing wrong with that, if they’re content with it”
‘Frank’ has completely missed the point and is still so naive as to believe that, the only gaol and aim of a working class man is to get as drunk as possible. He does not realise that this is just a show put on to cover up the true feelings. So again ‘Rita’ explains that its not all they want.
Rita: “But they’re not. Cause there’s no meanin’. “
‘Rita’ has to repeat herself just to get the message across to ‘Frank’ that their life has no meaning and that the only time that they ever had a meaning was during the war when material property and money didn’t matter and everyone was united.
This is ‘Franks’ interpretation of the working class and what’s worse is that ‘Rita’ sees the middle class as an amazing life, just because they are educated. ‘Rita’ thinks that gaining an education will gain her respect and a better life but what her and ‘Frank’ are both ignorant of is that how similar the two of them are and that they both want to escape their social hierarchy and be happy with themselves and their life’s. ‘Frank’ sees the working class life as an escape route; down the pub all the time and the hardest choice of his life are which lager to drink. He thinks he would fit in perfectly, I think he would as well and he sees ‘Rita’ as the key, much in the same way that ‘Rita’ sees ‘Frank’ as her key to dinner parties, wine drinking and intellectual conversations, something ‘Rita’ dreams of.
This dependence on each other leads to interesting and quality drama and situations in the play, for example right at the beginning ‘Rita’ depends on ‘Frank’ for everything and her language and essays make for some hilarious answers and lines. For example the “do it on the radio” answer is blatant, coarse humour and if you don’t find this funny, you should donate your funny bone to the hospital! It’s called an essay for a reason! But when ‘Rita’ gains in confidence we see a different side to ‘Frank’ because he is needed less and less and when he finally crack we hear what he really thinks.
Frank: “ You know, Rita, I think that like you I shall change my name… Mary Shelly…”
Rita: “What?”
Frank: “ She wrote a little gothic number called Frankenstein.”
This is a clever statement by ‘Frank’ and is explaining that he has created a monster in ‘Rita’; he only thinks this because he has begun to loose ‘Rita’. This is a big twist on the plot and brings the audience to an interesting question, what happens now?
All in all it is my opinion that the play ‘Educating Rita’ is a great insight into 1970’s Britain and is extremely enjoyable and excellent play for a stage production. Not just because it is good drama and that ‘Willy Russell’ has created a comedy with serious underlying choices but also due to the low budget of producing it, it only has two characters an done set, simple but genius. The two hander style works exceptionally well and by the end of the play I felt that I knew ‘Frank’ and ‘Rita’ extremely well and the single set creates a cosy “patina” and gives the audience an entertaining and enriched experience, so ‘Educating Rita’ doesn’t make good drama……… It makes exceptional drama.
By Craig Robertson
