![]() However, when Susan begins to blossom through the professor’s mentoring, both the teacher and student find their new world views a little difficult to endure. Through the enthusiasm that Susan (or “Rita” as she initially calls herself) shows for literature, the professor begins to regain some of his love for teaching (while never abandoning his even greater love of the bottle). When Susan enters the professor’s life, he has taken to getting plastered off the booze bottles hidden behind the volumes in his bookcase and showing up drunk for his lectures. In her first motion picture, Julie Walters reprises her stage role as Susan White, a working-class Liverpool hairdresser who seeks to better herself through the tutelage of a burned-out, alcoholic literature professor (Michael Caine). That is because the one thing in Educating Rita that is not small is the considerable charm of its lead actors. Yet despite all of its smallness, the film went on to garner three Academy Award nominations. It is a small film, made on a meager budget, based on a play for two actors on a single set. ![]() ![]() “Slight” is the best word to describe the 1983 Pygmalion-esque dramedy, Educating Rita. Frank Bryant), Julie Walters (Susan “Rita” White), Michael Williams (Brian), Maureen Lipman (Trish), Jeananne Crowley (Julia), Malcolm Douglas (Denny) UK/C-110m./Dir: Lewis Gilbert/Wr: Willy Russell/Cast: Michael Caine (Dr. Off Topic: Help Ricky Gervais End Bullfighting.This is a production that does not over emphasise the humour, but instead shows something else, a brief moment where two stars align before continuing on their path. The most engaging thing about her performance is her energy and passion, especially in the early scenes. Kerri Quinn as Rita has a much more dramatic part with a transformation that is visible to all. The innocence and purity of Rita briefly snaps him out of his lethargy, only to be engulfed once more. Michael James Ford plays Frank as a man holding it together on the surface, but just underneath is a deep sadness and loneliness. Where the play gets its depth is in the characters and the quality of the acting. You can guess the Pygmalion style storyline from the early moments and it rarely veers off course. The story is remarkably straightforward in one sense, with no obvious twists or turns. The set by Stuart Marshall recreates the office of a dotty English professor, with books from floor to ceiling and a desk at one side of the stage. They move from discussions on Ibsen and Chekov to the problems Rita is having with her husband or in the hairdressers. The play focuses on the weekly meetings the two have, which are ostensibly to discuss literature, but instead cover all elements of their lives. This production has changed the setting from Liverpool to Belfast in the 1980s, with the troubles rumbling on in the periphery although not directly affecting the storyline. The play is well known for the 1983 film adaptation starring Michael Caine, which helped launch the film career of Julie Walters. It is now touring Ireland and is at the Gaiety Theatre this week. This production of Educating Rita opened at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast in February of last year. Frank sees something in her that he admires and goes beyond the call of duty to help her on her path. Rita is a hairdresser and has no formal education, but dreams of a better life. He encounters the young and irreverent Rita while he is teaching an Open University course to try and make some extra money. He was once a young poet with much potential but as the years have gone by he has lost the will to write and has instead fallen into the bottle. Lyric Theatre Belfast presents Educating Rita By Willy Russellĭirected by Emma Jordan Starring Michael James Ford and Kerri Quinnįrank is a college lecturer who has a problem with the demon drink.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |