Educating Rita by Willy Russell at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast
Educating Rita by Willy Russell at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast on the 4 th of March, 2016 Directed by Emma Jordan Starring Michael James Ford as Frank And Kerri Quinn as Rita This chalk and cheese drama details the relationship between an alcoholic Professor of English and his Open University student, Rita. He is an all washed up alcoholic drifting between whisky-fuelled remorse, a relationship with wife Julia seemingly on the rocks and his albeit reluctant attempts to re-make a woman after his own image. The play’s obvious antecedents are John Milton’s Paradise Lost (God’s creation of man and woman and the account of the Fall.), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (man becoming God through creation of new life. This becomes a monster since created in the image of a ‘fallen’ creature.), George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion (a Professor’s attempt to create an upper class woman from a Covent Garden flower seller thus demonstrating that class is as tangible and profo