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

The Gains and Losses of Educating RitaThe purpose of my essay is to explain, in considerable detail, thegains and loses of Educating Rita for it being a two-handed play.The play, Educating Rita, written by Willy Russell is veryentertaining, although there argon only two characters, hence the reasonit is a two-handed play. The grounds on which I found it entertainingis based upon the basic plot dodge which consists of Rita, aworking-class Liverpool girl, with a hunger for education and Frank,her lecturer, attempts to do just that, but, their relationshipchanges, they become close. Close in the sense by not overlap youraverage perception of a student and teacher relationship. They drinkand smoke together. This soon changes when Ritas knowledge expandswith the help of Frank and summer rail. Summer school also helps toboost Ritas confidence enabling her to socialise with educated peoplelike herself. Rita divorces her husband, Denny, and gets a new flatmate called Trish. Trish has a p eachy influence on Rita until, shediscovered, Trish tried to commit suicide. Rita and Frank soon fallout however Frank still enters her for an exam. This concludes inRita passing her exam and fulfilling her envisage of an education. Shesoon becomes Franks friend again. Other characters, such as Trish andDenny are never seen but talked about. All the scenes, throughout theplay, 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. later on having read the play and seen the movie I am struck by the largenumber of differences. Many small details have a smashing impact on howthe story can and is being perceived. The movie offers a great deal ofbackground information on events that are relevant to the play. Thisis an exemplar of a big loss for Educating Rita being a two-handedplay. By seeing the deleted scenes of the play you get a greaterundersta nding of the sequence of events. world unable to see thedeleted scenes may have lead to confusion and misinterpretationresulting in the play not achieving its full potential. The play ismuch more inevitable in the sense that numerous actions will not takeplace on stage. For example, nothing taking place outside Franksoffice can be seen by the audience. All action is unavoidably confinedwithin the office. At the point in the play where Frank invites Ritato his home for dinner the audience are not set up for anything