Educating Rita: Theatre Review

Educating Rita is a brilliant play, written by Willy Russell. With just two characters, it tells the story of two people and their struggles with internal battles. Here’s my Educating Rita theatre review.

Overview of Educating Rita – the play on stage

Educating Rita is a play written by Willy Russel. This writer is also famous for writing Blood Brothers. The play Educating Rita is a fairly simple play – there are just two characters. And the whole play is set in the university lecturer’s study, so there aren’t any stage changes. But it’s a captivating and really enjoyable play. My Educating Rita theatre review is really positive – I loved this play. I saw the production at the Barn Theatre in Cirencester in 2025. But it’s a famous play that is also a well-known film, so there are plenty of chances to see the play.

Educating Rita follows the story of Rita and Frank. The plot is, in many ways, quite simple. My Educating Rita theatre review will discus the plot, so there will be some plot spoilers. But it’s not the type of play that has big plot twists – instead, the magic is in the dialogue. The plot is, in many ways, similar to the plot of My Fair Lady. But I much preferred this play.

Act One

Rita is a 29 year old hairdresser. She’s struggling to accept her working class life, and dreams of something bigger. She enrols on an Open University course in English Literature, so she can educate herself and move onto bigger and better things in life.

Frank is a university lecturer, teaching English Literature. He struggles with alcohol addiction, but is still teaching at the university.

At first, Frank is slightly reluctant to take on Rita as a student. He doesn’t appreciate her lively enthusiasm, or her fresh way of looking at the English Literature work. He points out that her original, and often sentimental, ideas will not pass the exam. However, over time, the two grow closer. And Frank starts to enjoy Rita’s lively company in their tutorials together.

The play follows Rita and Frank as they have their weekly tutorials. The play shows each tutorial, with a short break and change of lighting or costume to signal that we’ve now moved onto the next week’s tutorial.

Through their sessions together, we learn more about Rita’s and Frank’s lives as they open up more and share more with each other. Rita’s husband doesn’t like her doing the course, and one time he burns her essay and books. Frank is concerned for Rita, and supportive when she leaves her husband and goes on to rent a flat with Trish.

Act Two

Rita goes on to do a summer school in London, and throughout the academic year she learns more and becomes more comfortable in the university. She starts talking confidently with other university students, and produces essays that meet the requirements of the exam board. However, Frank seems to struggle with the changing dynamic between them, and his alcohol issues get worse. He gets in trouble with the university, and ends up arguing badly with Rita.

The play ends with Rita and Frank back together again in one final session in the university. Frank has been ‘encouraged’ by the university to take a two year break to go to Australia to try to sort out his alcohol issues. He’s packing up his books when Rita arrives. She has passed her exam, and is looking forward to the next chapter in her life.

What I liked about Educating Rita

I really enjoyed the play Educating Rita on stage. The production I saw at the Barn Theatre in Cirencester was excellent. It was probably the best production I’ve seen at that theatre. The roles were played by Ellie Clayton and Justin Edwards.

The play is about two hours long. But it’s amazing how just two cast members can captivate the audience for two hours, with very little change of set. It just shows how great the script is, and how great these actors were, that the entire audience could be captivated, laughing and almost crying throughout the play, when it’s just two actors on stage.

The acting in this play was brilliant. I completely believed in Rita’s and Frank’s characters. It almost didn’t feel like they were acting – it felt like they were just being themselves on stage. The costumes were great at all, and made Rita and Frank both feel very natural, relatable characters.

I really loved the sparkle and energy from Rita throughout the whole performance. And Frank was great as well. He reminded me of Hugh Grant in the film Music and Lyrics – which is one of my favourite rom com films, so that’s definitely a good thing. There was also a slight Jeremy Clarkson vibe about him as well – in a good way. I loved the character of Frank and the actor as well. Even when Rita was talking, I’d sometimes find myself watching Frank to see his reactions

Themes of loneliness and belonging, as well as social class and growth

The play deals with a lot of emotions and inner turmoil, which is shown really well throughout the play. Big themes in the play are themes of loneliness and of belonging – trying to find a place in the world where they belong. Rita is struggling – she feels like she doesn’t belong in her working class world, where she wants more than just going to the pub. Rita and Frank discuss working class culture. But Rita also struggles to feel like she belongs at the university at first, and it takes time for her to find herself belonging with the other students.

Frank also struggles with loneliness and belonging. We learn that Frank is divorced, and his new relationship has a lot of turmoil. Frank has tried to be a poet, and has written some poetry, but he struggles to see himself as a poet and belonging in the world of poets.

The play is brilliant at exploring these themes, and how these themes change as the characters both grow throughout the play. We really see Rita’s character’s growth, from the working class hairdresser whose husband was pressuring her to have a baby, to an independent and confident woman.

References to literature and the jokes and humour

As you might expect from a play that is focussed on the academic study of English Literature, there are quite a lot of literary references throughout the play. But it’s done well – you don’t need to be familiar with all of the texts to still be able to appreciate and enjoy the play.

There are a lot of jokes and humour throughout the play. It’s a funny play. There are laugh-out-loud moments, and also a lot of the time where you just find yourself smiling while watching. Some of the humour is very subtle and quick-witted – you need to be 100% paying attention to catch all the subtle jokes before the dialogue moves onto the next.

Some of the jokes have stayed with me, but there are loads more throughout the play. There’s the play on words joke about E. M. Forster – and the joke about ‘forced her to do what’? And then there’s the scene where Rita is meant to be writing an essay about solving the staging difficulties of putting on a play of Peer Gynt, and her essay is just one line, that says ‘do it on the radio’. There are so many jokes like this – and I definitely want to watch this play again so I can remember more of the jokes.

The changing dynamics between Rita and Frank

Act 1 of the play focusses on Rita learning to fit in at the university and become more of a student. Act 2 starts just as Rita gets back from her London summer school. It’s clear that she’s different now. She’s a lot more confident, a lot more knowledgeable, and a lot more comfortable mixing with the other university students. There’s a different dynamic between her and Frank. Frank is no longer half-amused, half-exasperated with Rita’s original way of thinking. Instead, he’s worried that she’s going to lose some of her originality, and not be herself anymore.

And there’s an element of Frank struggling with the fact that Rita doesn’t need him in the same way that she did at first. I enjoyed seeing the changing dynamics between the two characters as Rita grows, and how it affected their relationship. It’s a relationship of mentor and mentee, but it’s also so much more than that.

The ending

The ending of the play was really interesting as well. Throughout the play, Rita has been talking about wanting to be better educated so she can have a better life. And she achieves a lot of this – she passes her degree, she now works at a bistro instead of as a hairdresser, and she’s divorced and renting a posh flat with Trish.

However, in the final scene, we learn that this life isn’t all perfect. It’s revealed that Trish, who has been portrayed as being posh and have her life together, has attempted to commit suicide. In the play, Rita says that Trish spent half her time eating whole foods and taking vitamins to live longer, and the other half trying to kill herself. It’s another theme in the play, of how loneliness and unhappiness can hit anyone in any situation, no matter how posh or put together their life seems on the outside. And it shows the social class isn’t everything – Rita is desperate to leave her working class routes, but the play shows that this doesn’t solve everything.

But Rita’s new education has definitely given her options and choices. At the end of the play, Rita has options about what to do next. Frank asks her to go to Australia with him. But she also talks about a trip she could take to the South of France with Tyson, another university student. Or she could spend Christmas with her mum. Or she could start a family. It shows that for Rita, her education has given her options and choices. Which is what she always wanted from the beginning.

What I wasn’t so sure about

I really loved seeing the play Educating Rita. I thought the production at the Barn Theatre was amazing. And the script is great as well. There really wasn’t anything I didn’t like.

Would I recommend Educating Rita – the play on stage

I would definitely recommend going to see the play Educating Rita on stage. My Educating Rita theatre review is really positive, so I definitely recommend it. It’s a funny play that will captivate the audience, making you laugh out loud. But there’s a deeper meaning to the play as well, dealing with issues and exploring the character growth and development. It’s a great play, and I really enjoyed it.