Educating Rita- Themes & Summary
Educating Rita – summary & themes
Educating Rita, written by British playwright Willy Russell, was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and premiered at The Warehouse, London, in June 1980. The play went on to win the Society of West End Theatres award for Best Comedy in the same year. The play was adapted by Willy Russell into a 1983 award-winning film starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters.
Setting
The play takes place entirely in Frank’s office at a university in the North of England. The original play took place in the 1980’s but the script was revised in 2003 to be more generically “contemporary”.
The Playwright
"I wanted to make a play which engaged and was relevant to those who considered themselves uneducated, those whose daily language is not the language of the university or the theatre. I wanted to write a play which would attract, and be as valid for, the Ritas in the audience as well as the Franks."
Willy Russell, born and raised in a suburb of Liverpool, came from a working-class background. Some of his experiences in early adulthood are reflected in his play Educating Rita. Russell left school after completing only one O-level (comprehensive exams taken in the equivalent of grade 10) in English Literature and went on to become a hairdresser. At age 20 he returned to school and became a teacher. Echoes of all of these experiences, his working-class upbringing, leaving school early, hairdressing and later becoming a teacher, can be seen in Educating Rita, a play he wrote to appeal to people from a wide range of backgrounds. In many of Russell’s plays a philosophy is put forward that anyone is capable of change whatever obstacles may be in their path.
Literary Elements
Characters
Frank
Frank is a middle aged, middle-class English professor who has taken on the extra job of tutoring an Open-University student. He claims that this is to help pay for the copious amounts of alcohol he drinks throughout the
Educating Rita, written by British playwright Willy Russell, was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and premiered at The Warehouse, London, in June 1980. The play went on to win the Society of West End Theatres award for Best Comedy in the same year. The play was adapted by Willy Russell into a 1983 award-winning film starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters.
Setting
The play takes place entirely in Frank’s office at a university in the North of England. The original play took place in the 1980’s but the script was revised in 2003 to be more generically “contemporary”.
The Playwright
"I wanted to make a play which engaged and was relevant to those who considered themselves uneducated, those whose daily language is not the language of the university or the theatre. I wanted to write a play which would attract, and be as valid for, the Ritas in the audience as well as the Franks."
Willy Russell, born and raised in a suburb of Liverpool, came from a working-class background. Some of his experiences in early adulthood are reflected in his play Educating Rita. Russell left school after completing only one O-level (comprehensive exams taken in the equivalent of grade 10) in English Literature and went on to become a hairdresser. At age 20 he returned to school and became a teacher. Echoes of all of these experiences, his working-class upbringing, leaving school early, hairdressing and later becoming a teacher, can be seen in Educating Rita, a play he wrote to appeal to people from a wide range of backgrounds. In many of Russell’s plays a philosophy is put forward that anyone is capable of change whatever obstacles may be in their path.
Literary Elements
Characters
Frank
Frank is a middle aged, middle-class English professor who has taken on the extra job of tutoring an Open-University student. He claims that this is to help pay for the copious amounts of alcohol he drinks throughout the