Willy Russell's Educating Rita
Liverpool Playwright pens a modern-day Pygmalion and then takes on the Beatles!
Willy Russell - the man who chronicled the Fab Four, Educated Rita, and created Shirley Valentine.
Willy Russell - Educating his Audience
Liverpool son, Willy Russell's clever musical yarn John, George, Paul, Ringo, and Bert,about the rise and fall of the Fab Four; should be called John, George, Paul,. Cuz when he penned that one, luv, Russell seemed like a mop-topped toe-tapping fly on the Casbah/Cavern wall. In British theatre circles, Russell's stories are the 'poppermost of the toppermost'. No surpirse, as Russell hails from a long line of story-tellers. All of Willy Russell's stories from John, George, Paul... to Shirley Valentine and Educating Rita exude biting Liverpudlian wit, and raw Everyman charm mixed with sweet vulnerability and hard-core realism. There is a verbal musicality in Russell's characters that appeals to me, but I chose Willy Russell mostly because he admits he writes for the working man.
Ringo, and Willy
"Whilst the working-classes are accused of being philistines, there is a general attempt in this country to withhold culture from them... Literature is an invention by the middle-classes for their own benefit. The working-classes haven't accepted literacy yet, which is why it is so difficult teaching working-class kids whose traditions are in the spoken word. That's why I write for the theatre, because it's concerned with the spoken rather than the written word."
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Educating Rita written for the "Ritas and the Franks," is the story of naïve, but brash, hairdresser Rita (Russell himself, was once part of the wash-and-rinse set) whose enthusiasm to learn and startling transformation, thanks to her new-found knowledge, teaches jaded alcoholic, university professor Frank Bryant, some valuable life lessons. Oft called 'a modern-day Pygmalion' Educating Rita is constantly performed all over the world.
Russell's screenplay translated to film beautifully, starring Julie Walters as Rita and Michael Caine as Frank. Russell, Walters, and Caine were nominated for Oscars but all three won BAFTAS. (British Film Awards) Educating Rita is based on Russell's own experiences when he went to "evening class" through his wry observations of both students and teachers in their environment, as he studied the dynamic between education and the common man.
Information can be a powerful thing. Rita was keen to learn as much as she could, and her enthusiasm, gave Frank, a cynical stuck-in-his-ways professor, a new lease on life, and ultimately a bitter-sweet lesson in relationships. Russell's lesson in Educating Rita is really about life itself, where it can take you if you don't hold back because of class and social standing.
Later, my favourite Russell - The Mega Brill Shirley Valentine, yeah, yeah, yeah....
