Rita is also not the sort of person that Frank was expecting to be greeted by. In act one scene one the two characters drink together in Franks office, before discussing their surroundings and engaging in friendly conversation. Although Frank has pre-conceived ideas about Rita he is still willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and guide her through her first steps into higher education. Rita shows compassion towards Frank from the very beginning. We are shown that Rita and Frank come from two different backgrounds and are not educated in the same areas, Rita knows the true meaning of life, how to make people feel good about themselves and be happy. Whereas Frank is only educated in his world, in a knowledgeable, self obsessed, competitive world and between the two, Willy Russell is able to show his audience the true meaning and get across his underlying morals. The play in two-handed, where the characters are placed into a room and the situation is left to develop. Willy Russell uses this technique so that his audience are kept amused and entertained, making his opening scenes dramatic.
“Is it supposed to be erotic? I mean when he painted it do y’ think he wanted to turn people on?” not exactly to words we would expect to hear from an upper class, well educated woman, which is exactly what Rita isn’t. Her brash, abrupt, dramatic entrance of bursting through the door, instantly complaining about the state of Franks office, places her below Frank, displaying her status in the middle class. Willy Russell uses non-standard English for the parts of Rita, this is another way that Russell is able to show how different she is compared to Frank, Russell uses very formal language, spoken in a very knowledgeable way for the parts of Frank. Drawing a clear line between the two characters status in life. These two different styles of writing help Willy Russell to keep his opening snappy and entertaining. Russell is able to keep his audience on the edge of their seats by allowing them tiny pieces about the characters life’s and backgrounds, keeping them attentive and focused on the play.
Willy Russell is able to build an extremely detailed image in his audiences minds keeping them in the centre of the play at all times, as he focuses in on things that his audience are likely to of had first hand experience of, such as money issues. “Terrible these days the money, isn’t it? With the inflation an’ that” the situation that many people would have had experiences with. The play is set in a time period where many people only had a secondary educating and is based in a time slot where “second chances” are being made available through the Open University. At the same time the Equal pay act and sex discrimination act were just coming to light. Willy Russell used this to his advantage when writing his play, he was able to interlink these points in developing his characters, the way in which he displays Rita’s determination to succeed and enter Frank world of education. The fact that Rita, a woman, was now able to achieve a higher education and work toward what she had always wanted, may have been a starting point for many woman at that time. When people are shown what they are able to achieve it makes them more determined and this is exactly what Willy Russell has managed to achieve, by showing how well Rita is able to cope with the changes in her life and achieve that much wanted higher education. In the play Russell has shown members of his audience what a woman is able to do, how strong she can be and how much she can achieve from so little. This could have and probably was the starting point for many women in achieving a higher education. As we later find out Rita’s life was not so black and white, her husband, Denny, was determined to make things difficult for her and her only way of fitting is was to leave Denny behind, although Rita was not extremely happy about this, she knew it was what she had to do. Willy Russell is again using real life situation to involve his audience more closely in his play.
In my opinion I think the audience would have gained a lot from this play, the simple story of a young woman who wanted more for herself than the people around her were able to give her. Frank a man generally unhappy with life until Rita was able to show him his true colours. Using the snappy, chatty atmosphere so early on in the play, Willy Russell was able to keep his fairly long opening; dramatic, entertaining and enjoyable to watch. Willy Russell’s choice to uses such different characters to base his piece around, made one hundred percent sure that his audiences anxiety levels would have been raised as they became more and more intrigued, to find out if the characters would clash or get on like a house on fire. But I believe it was Willy Russell’s pure talent that enabled him to places to different characters in the same scene and make it work. Using the two different styles of writing and such different character personalities creating an opening, which was not only dramatic and entertaining but will be remembered in history as the starting point for woman.
