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| Russell, Willy: Educating Rita
Russell, Willy: Educating Rita
Educating Rita
The drama I`m going to present now is called " Educating
Rita" and written by Willy Russell. I`m going to talk about him a little bit
later.
The drama was first put on stage in 1980 and won the Society
of West End Theatres Award for Best Comedy in the same year.
In 1983 it was made into a film which was very successful as
well, so that it was even Oscar nominated.
The drama consists of two acts, the one with seven scenes
and the other one with eight scenes.
In the whole play there are only two different characters:
Frank and Rita.
- dialogue, reason that there are not many stage directions,
always very short
- first character Rita
- working class girl
- 26 years old, married with her husband
Denny
- roles woman-man---- typical, left school early, got
married, is working as a hairdresser
now
- so to say old-fashioned, living in a world of
old-fashioned ideals
- funny, charming, spontaneous, natural
charecteristics
- moreover talking a lot, impulsive, says what she
thinks
- from Liverpool -- setting, it takes place in
Liverpool
- Liverpool economical centre, west coast of
England
- important harbours
- much industry, industrial centre-----consequence-working
class is dominating, many
workers
- Rita = typical example of a girl/woman in
Liverpool
- most people there not very rich, (not very
educated)
- Rita recognizes that something in her life is
missing
- wants to change her life
- get out of the roles
- ”there must be something more than the superficial
things the people in the
hairdresser’s are talking
about”
- surches for a solution
- wants to be educated, become a completely new
person
- improve quality of her life, find herself,
self-enlightment, find her real identity,
diversify the meaning of her life
- has changed her name into Rita (sounds better, Rita Mae
Brown)
- leads her to the ”Open
University”
- special institution, giving adults the chance to get
education
- his/her (social) background is
unimportant
- teaching methods are different to normal
universities
- made for people who want to study at home, without giving
up their jobs
- learning with textbooks, notes on the radio/ TV, records,
cassettes
- ”open” for everyone (live in UK, over
21)
- don’t need any qualification like
A-Levels---starting at your level of knowledge, until
your able to qualify for the university’s BA degree
- degrees are equal to those of normal
universities
- better chances of career
- offers about 140 different courses
- more than 80,000 men/women are studying there per
year
- have to have the will to learn, because have to do
everything on your own
- Rita has will to learn
- get into O.U.
- story starts
- get to know Frank---her tutor
- Frank almost opposite of Rita
- in the fifties
- drinking problems
- is/was a poet, wrote poetry once
- works now at the O.U to earn money
- lives together with an ex-student Julia
- is unhappy, boring type
- educated, but it didn’t lead him to
happiness
Folie Tafelbild 1?
- setting: only one place
- Frank’s office
- all the walls are covered with books
- bottles hidden behind the books
- only two desks and two chairs (phone)
- dreadful, sad, with no ”life”
- influence of her social background
- thinks practically
1.act
- first lesson, first meeting between Frank and Rita
- start talking about literature
- many misunderstandings
- reason: she thinks in her world
- examples (Folie???)
- humour
- also fresh, wants to become another
person
- spontaneity, breath of air in the room
- she thinks everything of the educated class is brilliant
(sad office)
- culture, Rita: she has no, way of living doesn’t
have a meaning
- art/literature feeds her inside
- thinks her way of living has no value
- starting with literary, ”Howard’s
End”
- crap, rubbish, doesn’t understand
this
- in the following lessons she tries to write an essay, not
successful (not writing about
the topic, only one sentence, not based on
arguments)
- is soon able to distinguish good, intellectual books and
others
- doesn‘t think of meanings, criticizes a book
following her feelings (as she is used to)
- husband: doesn‘t understand her, wants to have a
baby, working class
- problems with Denny get worse; he also has a picture of
life in mind, different from
Ritasàbelonging
to the working class ideals
- next time: Denny burnt all her books, on pill
again
- she wants to have a choice (not only between washing
powder, TV programmes)
- leaves Denny
- during the conversations, understands more and
more
- essay better
- go to the theatre, again, loves it
- becomes evident again that she’s not very
self-confident, not enough education
- invitation to dinner, first says yes, doesn’t
come
- reasons ridiculous?; didn’t know what to wear, what
to talk about, which wine to
bringàdoesn’t
belong to this class, unsure (stupid woman, gives all a laugh)
- caught in the middle (Folie)
- end:
- good essay
- Frank is afraid that she will abandon her uniqueness by
getting educated, standardised
- something like a love story, Frank interested in an affair
(irrestible thing, why didn’t
you walk in here 20 years ago)
- Rita not interested, affair belongs to her old life,
literature more important than life (love), Frank: life (love) more important
than literature (experience)
- drinking problems become worse, finds hidden bottles,
wants Frank to stop drinking
2. act
- change really visible
- change of roles; role
reversalàpupil
dependened on teacher-teacher dependened on p.
- returning from summer school
- new selfconfidence
- new clothes, own style
- very educated now
- first insider talk is possible
- he‘s very surprised that she already knows
Blake
- Frank has problems with Julia
- only step back, voice
- doesn‘t depent on Frank anymore
- flatmate Trish, overwhelmed
- talked to other students
- changed her
jobà
bistro
- understands now literary criticism
- at the end of course, reads Franks poems
--great
- F. don’t want to teach her anymore, too good,
can’t bear that she is educated now
- changed her name into Susan
- passes the exams, great teacher, now she had the
choice
- doesn‘t admire Trish that much any more
(cool-suicide)
- educated, exited, confident, full of news, given up
smoking
- Frank not that positive: Has two take to years of holiday
(sacked from school)
- left by Julia
- going to Australia
- gives her a present. Dress for an educated woman,
Annerkennung
- give back: cuts his hair
-
The story about Rita and her development is directly
connected to the life of the author of this drama Willy Russell. It’s not
just a story created by the author, but it has a lot of parallels to his real
life.
- born in Whiston near Liverpool in 1947 (setting
drama)
- dad was a factory worker, later bought a chips
shop
- mother worked in a ware house---like Rita working
class
- read books, played football, liked gardening
lessons
.- didn’t care much for school/watched telly, so bad
at school
- never went to the theatre or something like this
(---Rita)
- got to know cruelty and violence at secondary school, very
hard time, real brutality
- moved to Rainford (not far)
- not that much brutality at school, old-fashioned compared
with old school, paradise
- loved lessons called ”silent reading”,
discovered that this waswhat he wanted to do
- wanted to be a writer and create feelings in
people
- problem: was bad at school, came from working class, no
conections to academic
class
- but hated factory work, was supposed to work in a factory
later
- often went to the ”Cavern”, where the Beatles
were playing, sagging school
- failed the exam to become a printer
- mother had the idea that he could become a
hairdresser
- didn’t care for the job---didn’t go to the
school, didn’t know any thing about
hairdressing
- knew that he would never be able to be a writer in the
world he was living in
- wanted to join the academic world ---better
chances
- hairdressing senseless for him
- went back to school, did his exams
- wanted to go to college, didn’t have enough
money
- did a very unsafe job at Ford to earn
money
- started studying = new beginning, feeling at
home
- in the following years he wrote a lot of dramas like
”When the Reds” (first one),
”King of the Castle” (TV), ”John, Paul,
George, Ringo and Bert”, ”Blood Brothers”...
- he once said himself that at the college he behaved like
Rita, overvalued higher
education; enthusiastic, wanted to talk with everyone
about his new knowledge
(people in the bus)
- wrote down some of his own experiences
- wants it to be understood like this
- in his opinion a play must walk and live alone, without
interpretation aid given by the
author
- said in an interview. awful belief that something which is
easily understood and
communicated is somehow inferior to that which requires
profound analysis and
explanation
- I think important point
- opposite, the play is about literature, education
language, he tried to write the play
also for people who have no knowledgeof
literature
- doesn’t like all these explanations
- everyybody should be able to understand the play, although
the people want it to be
less easily understood, mystic
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