Is education a path to freedom – or a cage for the free-spirited?

 “Libraries gave us power” is the battle-cry that kicked-off the Manic Street Preachers’ hit single ‘A Design For Life’ – and the potentially transformative power of literature is a key theme in Willy Russell’s play ‘Educating Rita’, currently being performed by Woodley Theatre at The Oakwood Center.

Rita (Sally Rowlandson) is a dissatisfied hairdresser, tired of a working-class existence and keen to broaden her horizons.

 Salvation comes in the form of an Open University course in English Literature, run by Frank (Julian Hirst) – a lecturer at the local university, moonlighting for the OU to top up his pub funds.

 However, Rita is a novice when it comes to the syllabus – preferring “pulp fiction” (as Frank dubs her tastes) and dismissing many of the “classics” with wry and humorous comments.

 With her exams looming – and examining bodies preferring conventional and objective answers to pithy one-liners – Frank takes it upon himself to help Rita conform to their expectations.

 The play is almost the inverse of Alan Bennett’s ‘The History Boys’. In that play, Irwin (the titular boys’ teacher) encourages them to come up with fresh and original ideas when answering exam questions (“Stalin was a sweetie”) in order to stand out. Yet in this one, Frank knows that failing to conform will scupper Rita’s chances of success.

 This sets up the play’s central dilemma – Rita is being pressured by her husband to conform to his expectations. Her friends want her to conform to their working-class culture. Literature offers her an escape, a means of (in her eyes) bettering herself – but is she simply trading one type of conformity for another, and sacrificing her originality and spark to do so?

 The simple and static set design really brings the themes, and the story, to life. The play is set entirely in Frank’s study – a safe and unchanging sanctuary for Rita. Those same qualities make it a dull and confining prison for Frank, a cage enlivened only by Rita’s presence.

 Rowlandson does a fantastic job as Rita; her enthusiasm and energy radiate against the stuffy lecturer’s office, while her pain and sense of loss for the life she might’ve had (if she’d focused on schoolwork in her youth) is palpable. As the play progresses, she perfectly captures the journey through her new horizons.

 By contrast, Hirst does an admirable job of portraying a man who’s tired of his job, his relationship, and his lifestyle – and who is all too conscious that it might be too late to reverse the decisions that brought him to this point. His mixed feelings over how best to support Rita, and his increasing attraction to the vibrant young woman, are brilliantly and movingly conveyed.

 Amateur theatre gets a hard time of it nowadays – people tend to dismiss it as poorly-acted and cheaply put together.

 But this production – expertly directed by Barrie Armstrong – sets the record straight. It’s compelling, moving, funny, brilliantly acted, and leaves you with plenty to think about. I have seen big-budget professional productions which achieved much less.

“Educating Rita” runs from the 20^th – 24^th June at Woodley Theatre, with tickets available at https://www.woodleytheatre.org, and comes heartily recommended. Photos courtesy of Graham Sylvester.

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