14 – 23 April 2022
by Willy Russell
Frank is a tutor of English in his fifties whose disillusioned outlook on life drives him to drink and bury himself in his books. Enter Rita, a young, forthright hairdresser who is eager to learn. After weeks of cajoling, Rita slowly wins over the very hesitant Frank with her innate insight and refusal to accept no for an answer. Their relationship as teacher and student blossoms, ultimately giving Frank a new sense of self and Rita the knowledge she so craves. The play became a hit film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters.
CAST
Frank | Michael Cooke
Rita | Victoria Bovingdon
Directed by Natalie Jones
Photography by Keith Orton
Review | April 2022 | Theo Spring
There is often a dilemma for directors as to how to introduce the audience to the play. Curtains opening to reveal the set as the play starts or give the audience time to take in the set to open curtains, as they take their seats. In this case, the revealed set needed a great deal of time to appreciate Keith Orton’s set design. In many years of reviewing at The Miller Centre I do not think I have ever seen such an intricate representation of a scene. Here, in tutor Frank’s room, there were books everywhere. Books on shelves, books high up on the plate rail, books on the floor and books on the desk. A wonderful bust had pride of place, a huge globe on top of a large filing cabinet and still there was room for two desks, set apart, a coat rack and an easy chair. A huge amount of work was on show and no wonder there were seven people assisting Mike Casebourne on his construction team. More ambience was added to the set throughout the show by Jonathan Mash’s lighting design which created changing pools of light over the desks whilst still lighting the whole room and thus enabling the required light and shade to depict the time of day. Keith Orton also lent a hand with the set painting, with a further trio contributing and Mike Bell helped Keith Orton with the props. I very much doubt whether, those not involved in amateur theatre themselves, have any comprehension of the hard work which goes on to create the perfect venue in which the actors can tell their story.
Here the story is of a fading English Literature tutor, Frank who has, what he first envisages to be a possible waste of his time, when assigned an Open University candidate for one-to-one tutoring. Rita, however, breezes into his life and transforms it.
Michael Cooke’s Frank, a drink-dependant lecturer, totally captured the ennui of his work, ever hoping for time in the pub before reluctantly going home to a partner whose cooking skills required, so she believed, an exact home-coming time. The role is huge and his characterisation totally believable. Who needed Michael Caine?*
Bouncing, almost literally, into his life comes Rita, with Victoria Bovingdon executing a perfect Liverpool accent, believable initial awe at Rita’s fortune in her tutor and a delight in the amount of learning available in that one room. Her transformation from a self-deprecating 29-year-old to confident, knowledgeable student perfectly reflected playwright Willy Russell’s script. Here, again, the role is huge, but both actor’s preparation had been so thorough there were no hesitations on either words or actions throughout the play.
It struck me that finding two such able actors to perform a two-hander to such a high standard is the second time The Miller Centre has achieved this but, in contrast to their previous two-hander – Trestle – performed in January, there was a complete contrast in the set – the one a bare church hall and with Educating Rita, more ephemera than it was possible to imagine. The similarity, however, lies in the amazing ability to learn all those lines.
Director Natalie Jones moved her small cast around the set with an experienced eye and I particularly applauded the almost final moment as it was Rita sitting in that rather lovely green leather chair behind the desk, whilst Frank was on the other side – the learning side maybe. A significant reversal of roles?
Altogether a triumph for Natalie Jones and her cast with such an important contribution from that amazing set.
*NB: Michael Caine played Frank in the film version of Educating Rita in the 1983 film, alongside the bubbly Julie Walters.