Educating Rita

 

Review by Paul Towers, 1/10/26

Educating Rita by Willy Russell

Directed by Cara Nolan

A Made At Curve production

At Curve til Saturday 17th October 2026

In 1980 Willy Russell’s Educating Rita premiered at London’s Donmar Warehouse and was an immediate hit. Just 3 years later it was filmed with Michael Caine and Julie Walters to BAFTA winning acclaim. In the intervening years it has been revived and the latest is yet another audience-pleasing hit at Curve.

Rita (Coronation Street’s Alexandra Mardell) is a 29 year old hairdresser who is convinced there is more to life than cutting old ladies’ hair and fighting with her feckless partner. In an effort to better herself she signs up to an Open University course in English Literature. To increase her chances of passing her exams she gets private tutorials with English lecturer Frank (TV and theatre stalwart Dominic Mafham), an alcoholic who takes on private pupils to pay for his drinking.

Right from the off this mismatched pair click and swiftly find they can be very beneficial to each other, if they let it. Where Rita sucks the knowledge and understanding of words and ideas from her mentor, Frank falls deeper and deeper into his hidden half bottles of scotch. Very much A Star Is Born of the educational world.

Of course, this is Willy Russell and the script fair zings with his Scouse humour as well as some rather course language.

The set by Michael Taylor is Frank’s musty study, sky-high shelves filled with books in alphabetical order to hide his booze. Everywhere there are piles of papers and debris indicative of his chaotic life. Up above are the brutalist concrete blocks of an inner city university.

Pics: Jonathan Pryke

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