Educating Rita
(1980 play and 1983 movie)

by Willie Russell

Dr. Frank Bryant is a disillusioned university professor who's sick of his work, his students, his wife and his life in general. He keeps a bottle or two behind the books in his office, and has a tendency of appearing in class drunk, but it doesn't matter much to him as he sees himself as “an appalling teacher of appalling students.”

To make things worse, his marriage was a failure and his girlfriend spends an awful lot of time with his best friend, who tends to have the same telephone conversation with the same publisher every time Frank comes into the room. The professor knows of course, but couldn't care less, at least when he's got a mug of Scotch handy.

Enter Rita. She's a hairdresser who, fed up with her job and husband, has decided to change her life, and she starts taking courses at the Open University. That's where she meets Frank, who at first is reluctant to help her, but who soon sees her rare qualities and accepts the challenge of educating Rita.

You may find it interesting to compare “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw. It is also interesting to speculate whether Willy Russell intended Educating Rita to be his version of the Frankenstein story. When this novel is mentioned in Act II Scene V of Educating Rita, it is implied that Frank's creation (Rita) has turned on her creator, who can no longer control what he has made. The strong sense of the loss of the power to control is exactly what Frank feels.

Is it only coincidence that the teacher who makes Rita what she is is called Frank, I wonder?