Educating Rita (Modern Classics)

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In 2007, while promoting the remake of Sleuth, Caine called Educating Rita "the last good picture [he] made before [he] mentally retired." [12] Home media [ edit ] There are certainly lots of laughs and silliness – set in iambic pentameters – to be gleamed from the mixture of quotations and cod Shakespeare. When Prospero admits to playing mind games, he declares: “Beware the ids of March.” Groovy and clever. What’s not to love? Rita asks Frank if he is married, and he says that he was once. As they continue their lessons, Franks world-weariness begins to show, and he is more down than up. He says that he wouldn’t hide so much from his girlfriend if she were more like Rita. Rita doesn’t take these comments seriously. Instead, she laughs them off. Willy Russell's first novel, The Wrong Boy, was published in 2000. Russell has provided the musical scores for the feature films, Shirley Valentine, Dancin' Thru The Dark and Mr Love, as well as for the TV series Connie and the television play Terraces. Willy Russell released his first album, Hoovering the Moon, in 2003. The Willy Russell archive FRANK When his paper was returned to him, his professor had written on it, 'And God gives out the marks'.

In 2000, Russell published his first novel, The Wrong Boy. In epistolary form, main character Raymond Marks, a 19-year old from Manchester, tells the story of his life in letters to his hero Morrissey. I don't wanna spend the night takin' the piss, comin' on with the funnies because that's the only way I can get into conversation. I didn't want to come to your house just to play the court jester." William "Willy" Russell (born 23 August 1946) is an English dramatist, lyricist and composer. His best known works are Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine, Blood Brothers and Our Day Out. Educating Rita is a 1983 British comedy-drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert with a screenplay by Willy Russell based on his 1980 stage play. The film stars Michael Caine, Julie Walters, Michael Williams and Maureen Lipman. It won multiple major awards for best actor and best actress and was nominated for three Academy Awards. RITA He hates me comin' here. It's like drug addicts, isn't it? They hate it when one of them tries to break away. It makes me stronger comin' here. That's what Denny's frightened of.

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The director adds: “Educating Rita contains all the hallmarks of what audiences love in a play. It’s funny, entertaining, thought-provoking and – even after the 40 plus years since Willy Russell wrote it – very relevant.” We learn they were banished into hyperspace when Miranda was a baby. For good measure we have a Greek chorus character appearing on film to help with the overview, and the laughs. Educating Rita is such a funny, yet thought-provoking read about a Liverpool working class woman in pursuit of her education. The play is basically just dialogue between two characters: Frank and Rita. It is a very fast read and Russell's sense of humor made it really enjoyable. RITA But they're not. Cos there's no meanin'!(...)An' like the worst thing is that y' know the people who are supposed to like represent the people on our estate, y' know the Daily Mirror an' the Sun, an' ITV an' the Unions, what are they tellin' people to do? They just tell them to go out an' get more money, don't they?

Russell has written songs since the early 1960s, and has written the music to most of his plays and musicals. He also co-wrote "The Show", the theme song to the 1985 ITV drama series Connie, which became a top 30 hit for vocalist Rebecca Storm. His first album, Hoovering the Moon, was released in 2003. Janet Maslin of The New York Times called the film "an awkward blend of intellectual pretension and cute obvious humour" and "the perfect play about literature for anyone who wouldn't dream of actually reading books"; she wrote that "the essentially two-character play has been opened up to the point that it includes a variety of settings and subordinate figures, but it never approaches anything lifelike". [9]Willy Russell is a playwright and musician whose work has enjoyed worldwide success and acclaim.He is best known for plays Educating Rita (1980), Shirley Valentine (1986), Our Day Out (1977) and the musical Blood Brothers (1983). Willy Russell’s works have been translated intonumerous languages and won multiple awards for both theatre and film. Willy Russell's twist on Pygmalion still works as well as it ever did on stage, as this worthwhile and entertaining production shows, so surely the time is ripe for some more revivals from the Russell canon other than the slightly tired touring production of Blood Brothers. This was a lovely book that I read in about one hour. It filled me with joy and sympathy for the characters, and I truly enjoyed the short time I had with it! For popular comedies that always seem to sell well when they do appear, it's surprising that we don't see professional revivals of Willy Russell's plays very often at all.

Rita decides to enrole on the open university were she meets Frank, a middle aged alcoholic who has been working at the university for years. This forms this unlikely due. Philip Bretherton's Frank at times gets the character just about spot on, but it isn't a consistent portrayal yet, with some less believable moments and a disturbing habit of staring pointedly at his co-star sometimes when she is talking. However Gillian Kearney is absolutely spot on at all times with a Rita that isn't as loud and coarse initially as she is sometimes played but she makes it work and is completely believable and compelling at all times. Frank is a perfect foe: a professor and has-been poet, who has more interest in the contents of the whiskey bottles than the contents of the books that line his office shelves, and behind which he stashes the drink. He’s cynical and has taken this special student only for the money. In 1985, Russell co-wrote the song "The Show", the theme for the TV series Connie with series creator Ron Hutchinson. The song was performed by vocalist Rebecca Storm and released as a single by Towerbell Records in June 1985, reaching number 22 on the UK Singles Chart. Willy Russell was born in Whiston, on the outskirts of Liverpool, where he grew up. His parents worked in a book publisher's and often encouraged him to read. After leaving school with one O-level in English, he first became a ladies' hairdresser and ran his own salon. Russell then undertook a variety of jobs, also the first play he wrote was Keep Your Eyes Down Low (1975). His first success was a play about The Beatles called John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert. Originally commissioned for the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool was transferring to the West End in 1974. Educating Rita (1980) concerned a female hairdresser and her Open University teacher. The semi-autobiographical Educating Rita was turned into a 1983 film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters. The musical Blood Brothers (1983), for which Russell also composed the music, first opened in Liverpool and transferred to London's Phoenix Theatre. It won the best actress award at the Lawrence Olivier awards. Bill Kenwright produced a revival in 1988 which has run for more than twenty years; the show was produced on Broadway in 1993. Shirley Valentine, which first opened in Liverpool in 1986 before a new production opened in London in 1988 starring Pauline Collins. It was also made into a successful film, in 1989, again with Collins in the title role. Russell received BAFTA and Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for both Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine.

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RITA They'll tell y' they've got culture as they sit there drinkin' their keg beer out of plastic glasses.

FRANK (...)When I was at university there was a student taking his final theology exam. He walked into the examination hall, took out his pen and wrote 'God knows all the answers', then he handed in his paper and left. It is more that the comedy doesn’t always land in the early scenes, sometimes feeling over-egged, while the drama takes its time to gather in force. Before it does, the tone wobbles and it feels a little too lost in the past, from nostalgic references to Kim Wilde and Robin Day to the unreformed 1980s wardrobe (hot-pink jumpers, pencil skirts, gold belts), and Rita’s bright-eyed hope of transformation, which, in this period context, seems to capture the dream of upward class mobility in Thatcher’s Britain, alongside her purer desire to feed her soul with learning. Susan (who initially calls herself Rita), a 26-year-old working-class hairdresser, is dissatisfied with the routine of her work and social life; she is reluctant to have a child, fearing it will tie her to the same monotonous routine for life, and she yearns to escape to something more profound, without exactly knowing what that is. She seeks to better herself by signing up for and attending an Open University course in Literature.i'm busy findin' meself, let alone findin' someone else. i don't want anyone else. i've begun to find me - an' it's great y'know, it is frank. it might sound selfish but all i want for the time bein' is inside of me. i certainly don't wanna be rushin' off with some feller, cos the first thing i'll have to do is forget about meself for the sake of him." John, Paul, George, Ringo...and Bert' Production History" broadwayworld.com, retrieved 23 April 2019 Now, former Coronation Street star Gray O’Brien (the Scot was once the British Soap Awards Villain of the Year ) is taking on the role made famous by Michael Caine in the 1983 film version. Lewis Gilbert says it was difficult to raise finance for the film. "Columbia wanted me to cast Dolly Parton as Rita". [5] Julie Walters, in her feature film debut, reprised her role from the stage production.