As you become educated you see that the life you were living was a dead-end and there was nowhere else to go. Frank notices the changes he says, “Found a better song to sing have you? No-you’ve found a different song, that’s all-and on your lips its shrill and hollow and tuneless…Rita, Rita.” Frank is trying to say that he liked you the way you were before, now you are educated Frank feels that you have changed into one of the other students and it doesn’t suit you. This is why he says “on your lips it’s shrill and hollow and tuneless” because it is not what you used to be like. When you reply to this statement you say “Rita?” And then you laugh you then go on to say “Rita? Nobody calls me Rita but you. I dropped that pretentious crap as soon as I saw it for what it was. You stupid…nobody calls me Rita.” After frank has finished speaking you should pause for second and smirk, as you think about the statement you are just about to fire out, then when you say it you should say it at a reasonably fast pace and when you say “You stupid” you should also pause as if you were going to say something nasty but stop yourself and carry on. You should pause during the play before significant lines another example could be when you are talking in Frank’s room and you walk over to the window, you could stare out, pause after saying “ I don’t wanna reform y’. y’ can do what you like and then say the line “I love that lawn down there” this shows that you are thinking of what life is like and “the proper student” who sit on the lawn in summer. This suggests to me you want to have freedom to be like the other students and have options.
Frank used to feel in control and now you are educated you are equal and Frank doesn’t like it! You add love and support and a challenge to Franks life, before you met him he felt like he was a failure as his expectations of being a poet was deflated.
Your dress sense also changes during the play. When you first meet Frank you should look like you have really made an effort but in a common way, you should wear maybe a short skirt and a brightly coloured low top with high-healed shoes. Although this dress sense to the audience may look common and a bit townie (for example bright makeup you and coloured hair) you think that it is what you should wear to make a good first impression. When Frank invites you to a dinner you get dressed up in the same way but when you arrive your face drops as you see the other people wearing different things. “I’ll get a proper dress, the sort of dress you’d only see on an educated woman.” This shows you have realised what the educated people wear and that you are different. Nearing the end of the play after you have been away to study, your dress sense changes drastically and you wear casual clothes that look effective and smart.
The relationship between you and Frank is very strong at first, You and Frank often have a heart to heart he tells you things that he doesn’t want to be mentioned anywhere else, as do you. This shows that you both trust and respect each other. He tells you things like this “Between you, me and the walls, I’m actually an appalling teacher.” And you tell him things like “Denny found out I was on the pill again” this is not the kind of thing you would tell you tutor; it shows you have a bond. Near the end your relationship becomes a little strained as you talk about people you have met and your new flat mate. Frank feels as though you are drifting apart.
To show the audience more about your character without talking I think your movement around the stage is important. In the beginning your movement should be fidgety and a bit uneasy, as you should come across as nervous. Near the end you should walk about with your head held high, as you are more confident. You feel confident because you are like the other students around you and you know the same kind of things as them and you now share the same interests.
There is always quite a bit of tension in the play, when you split up with Denny the audience should get the feeling you have feelings for Frank because it seems that way because you are more interested in Frank and what he teaches than your home life. Frank also separates from his partner. I think the audience should feel like there could be romance between you and Frank. It does not come clear in the play that nothing is going to happen so tension is there all the way through the play. There is almost a claustrophobic feel as the audience is submerged in just two characters.
Comedy is introduced in the beginning of the play when you talk none stop when you walk in the room and comment on the picture on the wall, “Look at those tits” this should give the audience a giggle as its not the kind of thing you would say to a Lecturer at the same time as giving the message that you are uneducated and quite common. One main reason for introducing comedy into the play is to endear us to the character; we are sympathetic to witty people because they make us laugh whereas someone who makes comments that aren’t funny can become annoying and therefore we ignore them. You make us laugh and so does Frank this means that we pay attention to you.
Willy Russell is trying to show the audience the contrast in society he shows us how you live and what the people around you at home do you don’t want to be like them, you don’t want to be a stereotypical young working class female. You don’t want to have a baby just because you are in a marriage, at one point in the play you say, “see, I don’t want a baby yet. See, I wanna discover meself first” this shows that you are confident about what you want, you don’t care what people may think you say, “they’d think I was mental” here you are referring to what you just said that you don’t want a baby and people in your society think your mental because of it. The audience is forced to admire you because you have courage and you want more than what is already there for you so you try and want to make a change to your life. You challenge the society even though your husband accepts society and doesn’t like or want change. The play also shows us what life is like around the university, it is very different, and people have their own opinions and are allowed to put their ideas across.
At the end of the play it is clear that your life has one significant change in particular. In the last scene Frank asks you if you want to go to Australia with him, you tell him that people have asked you to do other things, you go on to say, “I might go to France. I might go to me mother’s. I might even have a baby. I dunno. I’ll make a decision, ill chose. I dunno. This is that you have choices, you have freedom to do what you want, now you are educated there are many options for you.
If I were to add music I would have to think about the mood of the scene and what you or Frank would be saying, for example if you were arguing showing that you have changed and Frank doesn’t like it or it was a quite upsetting scene, for example the scene where you go to Franks house for a meal and look through the window and see how the other people are dressed and you feel out of place, I would use soft piano music, whereas in a scene where you are happy and jolly or in a busy scene I would use faster music maybe typical 1980’s pop music, this could be in first act1 scene1 where you just meet and the scene and atmosphere is being set.
