Opening Scene of Educating Rita Essay -- Educating Rita Themes Charact

Opening Scene of Educating Rita Explore the ways in which Russell engages the audiences interest in the main characters and themes in the opening scene of Educating Rita and explain whether you think the play written in 1979 is still relevant to 2005. Willy Russell’s play, Educating Rita, written in 1979, is a story about a typical lower class woman called Rita who decides she wants to lead an ‘educated life’ and she tries to do this by getting a private tutor called Frank to teach her, but learning to lead an educated life proves to be not what she expected. Willy Russell introduces Frank and Rita in two very different ways. Frank is introduced as a well read university tutor who seems to like his drink; this is shown when Russell writes ’the walls are lined with books’ making him appear educated. But then writes: â€Å"pulls out a pile of books to reveal a bottle of whisky† which makes the audience question their first impression of him as a typical university teacher, is he an alchoholic? Does he drink too much? Is this important? Rita is introduced as an uneducated, loud, rude young woman. The first impression Russell gives the audience is Rita saying: â€Å"I’m comin’ in, aren’t I?† to someone she has never met before, which shows a lack of manners or simply a casual upbringing. He then shows her going to a chair and â€Å"dumping her bag†. By using the verb â€Å"dump† Russell immediately suggests that Rita is not a ladylike person, and this follows the impression that she is ill mannered. Russell presents the play as a two-hander so that the audience is focused on the clash between Frank and Rita and the entire play is focused on Frank and Rita’s point of view. The two very contrasting personalities seem t... ... or missing something in his life, and Rita also says ‘ I want to be free’ which means she feels trapped in her life and wants to escape and she wants to do this by getting educated. They both seem to change through the play almost into totally different people, Rita changes her name to susan as she thinks it sounds ‘proper’. The play has a certain humour about it as the two characters personalities and views are almost opposite, this creates chaos, as neither of them knows what the other is talking about which is amusing to the audience, and Rita is very loud and uses a lot of swearing and slang which is not what you would expect in a university. In conclusion, Russell uses the contrast of the two characters in Educating Rita to create humour and engage the audience, whilst facing issues and views that are still a problem and relevant to today in 2005.