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Educating Rita

Dundee Rep

Four stars


 

When Willy Russell's Pygmalion like tale of a working class hairdresser’s getting of wisdom by way of an Open University literature course run by a pickled ex poet first appeared in 1980, social mobility and education for all was still a possibility. If set today, lecturer Frank would have long been made redundant, while Rita’s thirst for knowledge would likely have been thwarted by fees that would have left her in debt forever. More recently, Rita’s spirit has been brought bang up to date in Jade Franks’ Edinburgh Festival Fringe hit, Eat the Rich (but maybe not me mates x), and it is only a matter of time before Franks slips into Rita’s scuffed shoes and plays her dramatic ancestor for real. 

 

In the meantime, we should be grateful for this latest incarnation of what is now a period piece that remains a glorious riff on the old adage of how a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, be it for better or worse. Debbie Hannan’s production sees Frank brought to life by Richard Conlon as a well-observed study of middle aged male disappointment with occasional sleazy undertones simmering to the surface. Enter Rita, the play’s ebullient self-learner with ideas another station and radical views on Peer Gynt, Howard’s End and a heap of other set-text classics. Grace Galloway brings all this to life as Rita with a barnstorming fearlessness as her character finds her voice.

 

It is to E.M. Forster’s notion of ‘Only connect’ in Howard’s End’s epigraph that partly drives Hannan’s production, as the floorboards of Frank’s office are sporadically lit by networks of interlinked pathways symbolising how the mind joins things up. The meat of the play remains, however, in the cut and thrust of Rita and Frank’s sparring as it ramps up everyday issues of class, knowledge and what it means to be educated in a certain way. 

 

The ever-shifting power dynamic between Frank and Rita are captured beautifully on Jen McGinley’s book lined set. As Frank meets his match in the Frankenstein’s monster he has helped create, Galloway’s Rita is a vibrant presence in the face of his indulgence. Rita may be officially clever by the end of the play, but she still speaks the truth in what remains one of the most serious twentieth century comedies left standing. 


The Herald, May 30th 2026

 

Ends 

 

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