Royal Manor Theatre stage Educating Rita (From Dorset Echo)

Royal Manor Theatre stage Educating Rita

9:50am Sunday 7th March 2010 in

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A TALE of bettering oneself only to find that an education doesn’t necessarily equal better manners comes to Portland next week.

The Royal Manor Theatre Company is staging the updated version of Willy Russell’s comedy drama Educating Rita, starring Jo Cheverton and Stanway Williams.

The play is the tale of a Liverpudlian hairdresser determined to carve a better life for herself through an Open University course in English Literature.

Her down-to-earth nature delights her lecturer, a cynical alcoholic who is leading the course to fund his drinking.

But as her education opens new doors for Rita, so her lecturer becomes increasingly cynical about the world.

The play was made into a film starring Julia Walters as Rita and Michael Caine as her tutor, Dr Frank Bryant. Now it is being tackled on Portland, directed by Chris Matthews.

He said: “I have always liked the play.

“Doing a two-hander like this can be intense and if you get actors who don’t get on, you are in trouble. But Jo and Stanway are fabulous and it is going really well.”

Chris explained that the version being used by the RMT was updated by Willy Russell in 2003 to make it more modern.

“I don’t think Open University students have their own lecturers these days,” he said. “I think it is probably more like a factory and they sit in group tutorials.

“But it is such a great play with such wonderful use of language.”

Educating Rita is at the Royal Manor Theatre from today until Saturday, March 13 with performances at 7.30pm. To book tickets and for further information call 01305 860792.