HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1991-07-17, Page 23THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 17,1991. PAGE 23.
Theatre review
Learning never more fun than in ’Educating Rita’
Enlightening fun
Education was never so much fun as in Educating Rita
now playing at the Huron Country Playhouse in Grand
Bend. Prof. Frank Bryant (Sean Mulcahy) goes head to
head with Rita (Marcia Kash) as he helps her discover the
pleasures of being educated.
how to deal with the staging diffi
culties in an Ibsen play, she simply
writes: "Do it on the radio."
As Professor Frank, Mulcahy
choosis to play down the part of
his character that is a drunk and to
play up his role as a man disillu
sioned with his life and career. His
subtle performance is in perfect
contrast to Kash's vivacious charac
ter.
Set design by Robert Ivey works
as a reflection of Professor Frank's
disorganized life. Liquor bottles are
scattered among piles on books
which are arranged helter skelter on
several 'large bookshelves in each
corner of the professor's office.
Piles of paper threaten to fall off
(he top of filing cabinets. In one
scene where Rita must sit down to
write an essay, she plops into a
large chair after which the profes
sor lays a board across its arms to
provide a makeshift desk. This
action gives the audience the
impression that the two characters
have grown quite comfortable with
one another. In another scene, Rita
sits in a large chair behind the pro
fessor's desk while he lakes his seat
in the smaller chair beside the desk.
This action symbolizes the role
reversal which has taken place: the
student has become teacher and
vice versa.
Wardrobe choices by Jo Zvonkin
help the audience to see student
Rita's gradual transformation from
an unrefined hairdresser in mini
skirts and wild prints to a free-spir
ited bistro waitress in flowing shirt
and boots, and finally to a cultured
woman in a classically-tailored
suit. Because each scene is short
and snappy, Kash has to be quick
change artist and many of her cos
tume switches are accomplished
with accessories like scarves and
hats. A complete change of
hairstyle also takes place between
the two acts.
The Playhouse version of Edu
cating Rita is more than just come
dy. It is honest, sensitive drama.
We feel for Rita as her marriage
crumbles, as she doubts her choice
and ability to get an education, and
as she goes through the stage of
feeling like a "half caste", no
longer able to communicate with
her working class friends and fami
ly but still unable to fit in with the
"intellectual" crowd. We also feel
for Frank, a man who has given up
on his dreams and no longer
believes in his talent.
For a few laughs and a story that
touches your heart, Educating Rita
is a must see. It runs at Huron
Country Playhouse in Grand Bend
until July 20.
BY JOANNE WALTERS
The Huron Country Playhouse
production of Educating Rita is a
sure-fire crowd pleaser. It really
can't lose. It has a funny and intelli
gent award-winning script by play
wright Willy Russell (also the
author of Shirley Valentine) and
features wonderful performances
by veteran actors Marcia Kash and
Sean Mulcahy. Mulcahy does dou
ble duty as director.
Kash has just returned to the
Playhouse stage after a long
absence which has taken her to
Broadway and the Stratford Festi
val among other theatres. Her
delightful portrayal of Rita has per
haps been enhanced by the fact that
she has played the character before
in a Theatre Plus production in
Toronto. She's had plenty of prac
tice in getting the mannerisms and
Cockney accent just right.
Right, a young working class
wife, decides she wants to change
herself "from the inside" and opts
for Britain's Open University pro
gram at Oxford. She winds up with
Professor Frank Bryant (Mulcahy),
a boozy washed-up poet who
would rather be in the pubs than
teaching her - that is, until she
totally charms him with her com
mon sense approach to life and
innate intelligence. "You're the first
breath of fresh air to come through
that door in years," he tells her.
There are plenty of witty lines as
Professor Frank attempts to teach
Rita the difference between pulp
fiction and real literature. "What is
assonance," she asks her teacher.
When he tries to explain this pecu
liar method of rhyming words, her
face lights up. "Oh, it means get
ting the rhyme wrong," she says.
Frank had never looked at it that
way before - and so the mutual
education begins. When he later
asks h^r to compose an essay on
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