Act One Scene One of Educating Rita

Act One Scene One of Educating Rita

Read Act 1, Scene 1 and explain whether you think it is an effective

way to start the play. Comment on:

How Russell introduces the characters and themes.

How he makes the scene dramatic and entertaining.

Russell uses an effective way to start the play. It is effective

because we find out that Frank is alcohol dependent and he is lazy by

not getting the door fixed. Russell faces many problems when trying to

introduce his play such as showing Franks alcohol dependency, Rita

striving for a change, showing relationships between Frank and Rita,

Frank and Julia and Rita and Denny.

A telephone call tells us that Frank has a partner. The telephone

tells us that Frank and Julia do not get on very well. The advantage

of a telephone call is that it tells us that Frank has a partner in an

easy way. At the start of the play we see Frank looking for alcohol

behind books of the self. Russell making Frank look for alcohol behind

books shows to us that he is an alcoholic and also telling his partner

Julia that he is going to the pub afterwards. Russell would have found

it hard found it difficult to show that Frank and Rita are from to

different social backgrounds and setting the scene is a problem that

was also faced by Russell as well.

When Frank is looking for alcohol behind books he can not remember

where he had hidden the bottle of whiskey which indicates that he

might have been drinking before. “Where the hell…? Eliot?” When he

remembers where he has hidden the whiskey he is very happy.

“Jubilantly.” This visual clue shows the extent of Frank’s alcoholism.

Franks “pours himself a large slug into the mug.” People drink in

small glasses because it is very strong.

When...

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...on the door. You wanna get it fixed!” This tells us that Rita

says anything that she wants to or what is on her mind without

thinking about it.

Rita asks Frank why he took the job to work for the Open University.

Rita also asks him if he needed more money. Asking Frank if he is

doing it for more money is very rude.

Russell makes the scene entertaining and dramatic by making the scene

humorous.

Rita tries to show that she is intelligent by “going to the bookcase,”

this shows that she is interested in books, literature and want to

learn.

Rita picks up a book called Howards Ends by E.M.Forster. She read the

title of the book and makes a joke about it: “its sound filthy.”

Willy Russell makes it an effective way to start the play. He

introduced the characters quickly and effectively. We find out what

the characters are exactly like straight away.