Educating Rita

In the month that Willy Russell’s Blood
Brothers has announced {the surprise conclusion of its 24 year London
run::E8831344267103}, Edinburgh sees the play that should be regarded as
his true apotheosis.

The story of a university lecturer helping a Liverpudlian
hairdresser to learn about English literature is best known from the Michael
Caine/Julie Walters film. Like Lee Hall’s Pitmen
Painters and even Alan Bennett’s The History Boys,
Rita is about releasing potential and the power of esoteric
pursuits to enrich lives.

Here, Frank shows Rita how to have a better mind; she
shows him how to be a better man. The warmth and wit of the writing, charmingly
displayed by Claire Sweeney and Matthew Kelly, remains undiminished after
all these years. Even so, the linking jazz piano music (which sounds as if
written for another show altogether) is an odd choice and a lot of the constant
circumambulation is insufficiently motivated.

In David Mamet’s Oleanna, a character
describes higher education as “something other than useful” and explores how
erudition can be a lethal weapon. Russell, by contrast, shows that the
engagement of the mind is the best way to enrich the heart. It remains one of
the great British classics of the last 30 years.

– by Benet Catty