Bleedin' Forster He Dun't 'Alf Get On My Tits (Educating Rita (DVD))

Member Name: Chuckie8766

Product:	Educating Rita (DVD)
Date:	07/02/01 (2259 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great funny dramatic piece, only has two main characters, shows life as it really is for some people

Disadvantages: Hard to understand the Liverpudlian accent in some places, is more suited to older readers

Skillfully written by the famous Liverpudlian playwright, Willy Russell, Educating Rita is a "must read" play for every drama student. (It is a modern fictitious play recommended for fourteen to eighteen year olds of all reading abilities). (Some of Willy Russell’s other works include Shirley Valentine, Blood Brothers, Our Day Out and Stags And Hens.)

---INTRODUCTION---

Educating Rita was first written and performed in the 1980s. The play is actually set in the year that it was written, 1985. It made it's debut in the world of theatre and soon afterwards, due to it's huge success, it was made into a film.

---THE CHARACTERS---

RITA:
The play itself is about a young woman, Rita, who decides to enroll on an Open University class for English Literature. She is a twenty-six-year old hairdresser and it has been a difficult decision for her to enroll on this course.(The Open University is a university that was set up in the 1960s as a way of enabling adult students, like Rita, to study for a degree at home). This meant that Rita had to study via a combination of television and radio programmes, booklets and by having regular meetings with a tutor, Frank.

Rita is a mature woman but feels that she may not find the course particularly easy. One of the reasons for this is her age, the other is due to her boyfriend Denny who does not want her to do the course. Denny would much rather her stay at home and have his children.

In deciding to study, Rita becomes more educated and more culturally aware. Rita's life begins to change quite drastically almost instantly. She gradually becomes much more absorbed in culture and literature throughout the play but later on in her studies she begins to realise that literature does not hold all the answers to life's problems when her flat-mate attempts suicide.

Rita is a fun-loving character, bright and chirpy, a true Liverpudlian at hear
t. She enjoys reading and is a very good hairdresser. Her life has it's ups and downs, mostly downs, but she gets by on the love she receives from her boyfriend Denny (and her mother). Rita is a woman who wants to succeed in life, she regrets her childhood and does not wish to start a family herself yet until she has a career sorted out.

At the start of the play she is a nervous cocky character but she develops in to a wise woman who is able to make an informed choice about the direction her life will take.
Over the course of the play I feel that Rita matures a great deal. Her character is my favourite in this play.

FRANK:
Frank is Rita's university lecturer he is usually found drinking out of his whisky bottles which he keeps hidden in his room at the University where he works - behind his bookshelves. He is an alcoholic. He is currently bored with his job, yet when he meets Rita all of this changes. She breezes into Frank's life like a much needed breath of fresh air.

Rita is Frank's first Open University student, so he does not really know how to treat her at first. Frank usually only teaches normal university classes during the daytime. He has taken the Open University job on part-time though to spice up his life and as an extra little money spinner.

Frank has already had one failed marriage and at the present time he is married to a wonderful, quite middle-class woman named Julia. However, his relationship with her is not an easy one.

One of Frank's major successes of the century is having his poetry published in a proper book. Frank no longer writes poetry though as he does not like what he writes. However, towards the end of the play Rita reads some of Frank's poetry and Frank changes his mind.

Frank does not develop much throughout the course of the play, he is disillusioned and cynical at the start and the only progress that he makes is downhill, by the end of the
play he has effectively been dismissed from his job.
Frank's behaviour during university hours deteriorates rapidly during the course of the play due to his drinking habit. He soon re-locates himself to a university in Australia to correct his mistakes.

DENNY:
Denny is Rita's boyfriend, he lives with her in their two up two down terraced house. Rita and Denny are as 'common as muck', however, Denny is constantly trying to refit their house to make it look better - it often looks worse though. Denny wants Rita to have a baby, he does not know that she is taking the pill until he finds them in her room. He hates her going to the Open University and ends up burning all Rita's books on a bonfire he makes in their backyard. Denny gets on well with Rita's father and they often go out on many drinking sessions together. Denny's character is a stereotypical masculine male.

JULIA:
Julia is Frank's wife. She dresses very well and acts upper class when really she is not. She hasn't been with Frank long and she ends up having an affair with one of Frank's colleagues during the course of the play.

TRISH:
Trish is Rita’s flat-mate when she decides to leave her home to get away from Denny. She is a rather strange character who wears lots of jewelry and listens to some very alternative music. Rita likes Trish at first but realises what she is really like when she finds her attempting to commit suicide.

(There are a number of other small part character's in this play but they are unimportant as it is Rita and Frank whom the audience get to know the most.)

---SETTING AND THEMES---

The main setting for the play is in Frank's book-lined study in a university in the northern part of England. Most of the action between Frank and Rita takes place here, yet other important turning points like the dinner party at Frank's house and Rita's visit to the
university Summer School do take place elsewhere.

The main theme of the play is personal relationships, the play focuses on the way that Rita and Frank both influence each other. This is shown in a very realistic manner and is one of the main reasons why I love this play so much.

Another theme whcih Russell deals with in this play is the clash of cultures. We learn about the different culture each character has through Rita and Frank's conversations in which neither of the two really understand each other. Rita is determined to acquire a middle-class culture and she sees education as the means to achieve this aim.

---LANGUAGE AND STYLE---

Educating Rita was written as a comical piece. It is meant to be amusing and entertaining, this is achieved by the way the two characters address each other. Rita speaks with a very strong Liverpudlian accent, which is a little hard to understand at times, and Frank speaks rather posh. Frank uses a lot of big words which Rita is constantly asking him to explain.
Rita soon attempts to speak like Frank though in act two but this does not seem to work with her so she reverts back to her colloquial speech.

---THE STORYLINE---



---FINAL THOUGHTS---

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