8/16/2023 0 Comments Educating rita russell![]() ![]() The British Film Institute ranked Educating Rita the 84th greatest British film of the 20th century. ![]() It won multiple major awards for best actor and best actress and was nominated for three Academy Awards.Ĭaine and Walters both won BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for best actor and actress. ![]() The film stars Michael Caine, Julie Walters, Michael Williams and Maureen Lipman. It would seem almost trite to suggest that Rita is a character that resonates with Russell, a playwright who left school with only a D in English and who found himself considering a career as a women’s hairdresser.Įducating Rita is a classic for a reason, and Lyric Theatre have crafted an adaptation worthy of it.Educating Rita is a 1983 British comedy-drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert with a screenplay by Willy Russell based on his 1980 stage play. Quinn’s Belfast accent is part of the Northern Irish texture of this adaptation, but her performance taps into the universality of Rita’s aspiration. Quinn brings Rita to life in a way that is entirely her own, no small accomplishment given the shadow cast by Julie Walters in the cinematic adaptation. However, Kerri Quinn is the real star of the show. Those overcrowded bookshelves might be a gateway (or a ladder) to another world for Rita, but they’ve come to represent a prison for Frank. So overflowing with books that the myriad shelves can hardly contain them, and that even Frank is liable to lose track of where exactly he has hidden his gin, the office captures a sense of the both the potential and the tragedy of this environment. Stuart Marshall’s set design is impressive, creating a stuffy and dusty environment for Frank. Rita has enrolled in an Open University course to broaden her understanding of poetry and prose and Frank is her tutor. Educating Rita unfolds entirely in the office of a middle-aged university professor working through his own anxieties. ![]() It seems a waste to spend it all in one place. The world is a big place full of wonder and mystery. There is something universal in the desire to get away, to break out of the familiar holding patterns of the mundanity of everyday existence, to want to know more and to want to see more. Lyric Theatre’s adaptation of Educating Rita is a joy. Jordan’s stage adaptation of Russell’s play captures that sense of desperation and passion beautifully, anchored in a powerhouse central performance by Kerri Quinn as the eponymous hairdresser. It is a loving ode to those who find the courage to pursue that freedom, and a tragic paean for those who lack the strength. Russell’s Educating Rita is a beautiful expression of that yearning to escape, of the desire to be “free”, whether from one’s economic conditions, the dreary drag the day-to-day life, or even one’s own destructive habits. The setting adds resonance to the themes of play and its characters, but the truth is that it’s hardly necessary. He translates the drama from Liverpool to Belfast, with director Emma Jordan reinforcing the shift in setting by punctuating the acts with snippets of radio coverage recalling the darkest days of the Troubles. For this latest production by Lyric Theatre, Russell has updated and tweaked the original text slightly. The works of Willy Russell have endured remarkably well.Įducating Rita holds up as perfectly today as it did when it was first written over a quarter of a century ago. ![]()
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