Educating Rita is a brave choice by Jeremy Raison - the play has entered popular culture through the film and he risks alienating an audience by deviating from the established interpretation. And despite a marvellous design by Philip Witcomb - the stage transforms into an academic office of book-heavy disorder - this production indulges the humour at the cost of seriousness.
Emma Cunniffe turns in a serviceable performance as the titular heroine, but the sexual chemistry between her and tutor Frank (Charles Lawson) fails to ignite. This leaves the second half flat - his descent into alcoholism never reaches tragic status.
Willy Russell’s script sparkles, taking in comments on class tension, the dangers of seeking culture as a social improvement programme and the basics of literary theory. But this Rita is uneven, never capturing the moral forcefulness beneath Russell’s witty surface.
The humour, especially in the first act, is emphasised, with Rita’s early engagement with high art rendered as a series of comic set pieces. Cunniffe and Lawson effectively work the laughter and audience’s applause. The piece’s structure is clarified by a dynamic lighting design from Douglas Kuhrt, demarking the scene breaks with sensitive fades, and the sense of time passing is felt through the changes of Rita’s dress and subtle light effects.
Raison’s direction is light, keeping the dialogue quick-fire and the jokes flowing. But the absence of grandeur in Frank, failed poet and husband, limits the impact of the second act, leaving this a solid, if partial, production of an engaging two-hander.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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