The Gains and Losses of Educating Rita :: Educating Rita Willy Russell Plays Essays

The Gains and Losses of Educating Rita The purpose of my essay is to explain, in considerable detail, the gains and loses of Educating Rita for it being a two-handed play. The play, ‘Educating Rita’, written by Willy Russell is very entertaining, although there are only two characters, hence the reason it is a two-handed play. The grounds on which I found it entertaining is based upon the basic plot outline which consists of Rita, a working-class Liverpool girl, with a hunger for education and Frank, her lecturer, attempts to do just that, but, their relationship changes, they become close. Close in the sense by not sharing your average perception of a student and teacher relationship. They drink and smoke together. This soon changes when Rita’s knowledge expands with the help of Frank and summer school. Summer school also helps to boost Rita’s confidence enabling her to socialise with educated people like herself. Rita divorces her husband, Denny, and gets a new flat mate called Trish. Trish has a great influence on Rita until, she discovered, Trish tried to commit suicide. Rita and Frank soon fall out however; Frank still enters her for an exam. This concludes in Rita passing her exam and fulfilling her dream of an education. She soon becomes Frank’s friend again. Other characters, such as Trish and Denny are never seen but talked about. All the scenes, throughout the play, are set in the Open University where Rita is being taught. To help me carry out this essay I watched the film, ‘Educating Rita’, in order to identify any gains and losses for the two – handed play. After having read the play and seen the movie I am struck by the large number of differences. Many small details have a great impact on how the story can and is being perceived. The movie offers a great deal of background information on events that are relevant to the play. This is an example of a big loss for ‘Educating Rita’ being a two-handed play. By seeing the deleted scenes of the play you get a greater understanding of the sequence of events. Being unable to see the deleted scenes may have lead to confusion and misinterpretation resulting in the play not achieving its full potential. The play is much more predictable in the sense that numerous actions will not take place on stage. For example, nothing taking place outside Frank's office can be seen by the audience. All action is unavoidably confined within the office. At the point in the play where Frank invites Rita to his home for dinner the audience are not set up for anything