Changes in Rita in Act Two Scene One of Educating Rita

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Changes in Rita in Act Two Scene One of Educating Rita

Willy Russell was born in Whiston, near Liverpool, England, in 1947.

Russell has written a string of popular, award-winning plays and

musicals, but perhaps one of the most well known is Educating Rita. In

this play Willy Russell is very much producing a mirror image of parts

of his life. As a child and growing up he didn’t care much for school,

he considered himself a kid from the ’D’ stream and a piece of factory

fodder. Eventually he realised he did not want to end up working in a

factory, yet it was to late as there were only six months of school

left he did not make an effort, he felt his fate lay in factory work

so he spent his days in underground clubs and sagging of school. He

left school generally uneducated and became a ladies hairdresser as

Rita does in the play, he did not enjoy his job and he felt he was not

good at it, eventually he got his own salon and on bad days he would

retire to the back room and wrote, as he felt it was the only thing

he could do.

Eventually he begun to write poetry, books and sketches but found

himself interrupted by the world he was in, he wanted more. He soon

realised that if he wanted to write he had to change, and find a world

which would encourage such aspiration but this would mean a drastic

change of course. He decided to go into the academic world to nourish

his ideas, he enrolled himself in O level English literature and

passed, yet to go to college he needed 5 O levels and he paid for this

by working at a factory. He entered Childwall college and felt like he

could start again. He felt at home. At the time working-class society

and middle-class society were very much apart and clearly did not mix,

for the working-class culture literature and education are not

important and not part of their lives (Rita feels this is stifling

her), yet for the middle-class people it is essential in their lives

although Frank in the play seems to have grown tired of it.

Just as Willy Russell Rita feels misplaced in society and decides to

change her world to by entering the world of education. She begins the

play as a clearly ignorant person, frank her tutor asks her ’and you

are’ obviously wanting her name yet she replies ’what am I?’ clearly

unfazed by what he actually wants to know, she is also constantly

making jokes and coming acr...

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...ecome more environmental and health

conscious just as young students are.

Overall Throughout Act 2 Scene 1 we notice a dramatic change in Rita’s

attitude and character. Where before she was funny and often told

jokes and made sarcastic comments about what she did not know, here

she does not do this once. Everything she has to say is straight to

the point, swearing is also avoided as she does not swear once when

speaking to Frank whereas before it was part of her normal dialect.

When an actress is playing this part she must keep in mind the extreme

change that has taken place in Ritas character, she is no longer the

’stupid typical working-class girl‘, she is now a bright young woman

who now sees herself with choices and decisions that she would not

have had before she was educated. The actress must reflect this

feeling of a ’new person’ by exaggerating confidence in everything she

does, concentrating on the feeling of extreme confidence and pride in

herself as this has to be clearly projected to the audience. Where

before Ritas wanted to achieve something but was not sure she could do

it, here she has now proved to herself that she can and feels

unstoppable.

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