'Educating Rita' Merits High Grades

Educating Rita

By Willy Russell, Directed by Maria Aitken; Scenic Design, Allen Moyer; Costume Design, Nancy Brennan; Lighting Design, Joel E. Silver; Original Music and Sound Design, John Gromada; Projection Design, Seághan McKay; Dialect Coach, Stephen Gabis; Production Stage Manager, Carola Morrone LaCoste; Stage Manager, Amy Weissenstein

CAST: Andrew Long, Frank; Jane Pfitsch, Rita

Performances through April 10 at Huntington Theatre Company; Box Office 617-266-0800 or www.huntingtontheatre.org

When I think of the Huntington Theatre Company, the first things that come to my mind are their unwavering professionalism and the consistent quality of their production values. Sitting before the proscenium in the Boston University Theatre is as close as we get in our town to the experience of being in a Broadway house. That being said, I highly recommend that you enroll in the audience for Educating Rita and pay strict attention because, to quote another famous British playwright, this time around, "The play's the thing."

The 1980 Olivier Award-winning Best New Comedy by Willy Russell (Shirley Valentine, Blood Brothers) is perhaps better known in the United States for the 1983 film adaptation starring Sir Michael Caine and Julie Walters, but the play receives a fresh outlook at HTC under the direction of Maria Aitken. This marks Aitken's return to the local stage after the 2007 American premiere of her brilliant Olivier and Tony Award-winning production of Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. Contrary to the kinetic frenzy of the latter, Educating Rita calls for greater precision to shape the characters, drawing out their inherent humor and humanity, and Aitken displays a steady hand.         

Enacting the story of Rita, the brash, young working-class hairdresser who wants more out of life, and Frank, a middle-aged, boozing and burnt-out professor/poet, are Jane Pfitsch and Andrew Long, both of whom are exquisitely comfortable in their characterizations. From the first scene to the last, there is nary a false move or emotion from either of them. It is as if they have been playing these roles opposite each other for a long run as they seamlessly navigate Rita's and Frank's journeys of self-discovery and sweep us off our feet in the process.

It should be noted that the journeys are of the internal kind as the play is set in Frank's "perfect mess" of an office (perfectly realized by Allen Moyer's scenic design) at a university in northern England. Russell grew up in Liverpool in the era of The Beatles and grounds Rita's story in that working-class culture where a twenty-six year old married woman is expected to be having babies, not seeking higher education. However, Rita enrolls in the Open University wanting to know "everything" and seems to understand on a gut level that Frank is the tutor she is meant to have, despite his misgivings and crotchety persona. Although they come from different classes and cultures, they are both living with a kind of despair that each can see in the other. Eventually their common empathy bonds them even more deeply than their shared passion for literature.

Russell borrows slightly from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion tale in crafting the relationship between Rita and Frank. When she arrives, uneducated and craving change, Rita puts herself in Frank's hands to mold her into a student. He bristles at the idea of infusing her with his knowledge and wants her to have her own ideas. However, as she blossoms into a free spirit and finds others who influence her, Frank is loathe to deal with her drifting away from him. Aitken shows the ongoing power shift with meaningful but seemingly inconsequential little visual cues like blocking positions and swapping their usual seating arrangements, and costume changes redefine Rita as she goes from wearing mini-skirts and white go-go boots to hip-huggers and letting her hair down under a beret. Designer Nancy Brennan also helps to level the metaphorical playing field between them by gradually raising the height of Rita's heels.  

Frank's changes are much less visible as he merely alternates shapeless jackets and cardigan sweaters, but he is genuinely affected by the guileless and disarming Rita. Both his personal and professional lives leave much to be desired and he spends a lot of time wallowing in low self-esteem as he views things through the bottom of a whiskey glass. However, Rita believes in him as her teacher and he is moved by her in unexpected ways. Frank's challenge is to allow her to become the person she was searching for and accept his part in her success in order to pull himself out of his self-imposed doldrums.

What really makes Educating Rita special is the combination of comedy and pathos in a story that we can understand with characters that are relatable. In addition to their great chemistry, Pfitsch and Long have mastery of the cadence of Russell's dialogue and consistently employ the regional vernacular, so kudos to Dialect Coach Stephen Gabis. The office setting is warmly enhanced by Joel E. Silver's lighting design, and Seághan McKay's projections keep us aware of the consistent inclemency of the weather outside Frank's tall windows. John Gromada handles sound design and provides original music between scenes. Rest assured that the Huntington's production values remain topnotch even when the play is the thing.

 

Photo credit: T. Charles Erickson (Jane Pfitsch, Andrew Long)