Educating Rita

Educating Rita

Willy Russell’s play “Educating Rita” only uses one main setting and

two main characters. Some people may think that these would make the

play seem boring. Russell actually makes the play quite interesting

and entertaining by using dramatic devices such as the whiskey bottle

and the telephone call. He does this to give us as much information as

possible about the characters and their personalities.

The play, which is set in the early 1980s, deals with the clashes

between education and culture. It is about a middle-aged university

lecturer called Frank. He is currently in a relationship with Julia.

This relationship is not going too well as Frank is an alcoholic and

would much rather go to the pub than go home to Julia.

There is also Rita a 26-year-old woman who didn’t have a good

education when she left school due to her parents’ working class

background. She is now keen and eager to learn even though her husband

Denny thinks that it is time for her to settle down and have children.

Rita has set her sights higher than this.

Rita is currently working as a hairdresser, but wants to achieve so

much more than that, she wants an education.

We get an idea of what sort of personality Frank has got by the

conversation he has with Julia when she calls him to see when he was

coming home. Although Frank had other Ideas, he was planning on going

to the pub. We could see this by, “ Yes I shall go to the pub” and “I

don’t need determination to get me to the pub”. We get the impression

that Frank does not care a great deal about Julia although it’s clear

she loves him.

When Frank was told that he was going to be tutoring Rita who is an

open university student he was not very happy, the only reason he had

took the job was so that he could make more money to spend on alcohol.

Frank guessed that she was going to be “some silly woman”. This gives

us the impression that Frank likes to use stereotypes and thinks that

there is not much point. He soon realises that Rita has quite a lot to

offer in regard to he uniqueness. The Playwright Russell wants to show

how class affects education.

When we first meet Rita we see that she is not the normal student

Frank was expecting. She swears and uses informal colloquial language.

This makes us think that Rita is not at all nervous about starting

Open University and also makes her working class background obvious.