Educating Rita

’One way of describing Educating Rita would be to say that it was about the meaning of education ... Another would be to say that it was about the meaning of life. A third, that it is a cross between Pygmailion and Lucky Jim. A fourth, that it is simply a marvellous play, painfully funny and passionately serious; a hilarious social documentary; a fairy-tale with a quizzical, half-happy ending.’ Sunday Times

This new student edition includes an introduction covering the play’s context; chronology; dramatic devices; critical reception; production history; and key themes such as class and identity, popular culture and education.

Educating Rita portrays a working-class Liverpool woman’s hunger for education. It premiered at the RSC Warehouse, London, in 1980 and won the SWET award for Best Comedy of the Year. It was subsequently made into a highly successful film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters and won the 1983 BAFTA award for Best Film.

Commentary and notes by Katie Beswick, University of the Arts London.

One of the most-produced writers of his time, Willy Russell (b. Whiston, Liverpool, 23 Aug. 1947) is a playwright and songwriter. He has written a large number of highly successful plays and musicals for stage and TV including John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Bert (1974), Breezeblock Park (1975), One for the Road (1976), Our Day Out (television 1977; stage musical version 1983), Stags and Hens (1978; filmed as Dancin’ thru the Dark, 1990), Educating Rita (1979), Blood Brothers(1981; musical version 1983), and Shirley Valentine (1986). His novel, The Wrong Boy, was published to great acclaim in 2000.

Ros Merkin is Reader in Drama at Liverpool John Moores University. She has written and edited books and articles on local and regional theatre including Liverpool Playhouse at 100: A Theatre and its City (Liverpool University Press, November 2011);The Glory of the Garden: English Regional Theatre Since 1984 (co-edited with Kate Dorney; Cambridge Scholars Press; 2010); and Liverpool in The Cambridge Companion to Theatre History (David Wiles and Christine Dymkowski, CUP, 2012).