Educating Rita

Reviewed by Lovell Estell III

RECOMMENDED:

Willy Russell’s 1980 comedy is a sly take on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and here receives a high-quality mounting by director Robert Mackenzie. The story brings together the unlikely pair of Frank (Adrian Neil), an impenitent drunkard, failed poet and burned out English lit lecturer; and the youthful Rita (Murielle Zuker), a mouthy, 26-year-old, working-class gal with an all-consuming desire to extricate herself from her lowborn, uneducated status.

Rita joins an open university literature course, cajoles Frank into being her tutor, and this arrangement inexorably transforms Frank’s stately, well- appointed office (an eye catching design by Jeff G. Rack) into a combination schoolroom and therapy venue.

Frank is at first amused in a condescending sort of way with Rita’s gushing desire for self-betterment, but gradually he becomes captivated with her zeal for learning and appreciation of the subject matter — things he lost long ago. The contrasts and odd similarities between the two aren’t the only things that resonate here. There is a real bond that develops between Frank and Rita, and a strange blending of personalities that slowly occurs, so that at play’s end, the roles are somewhat reversed. This is an engaging, well-written script with heady, sometimes heated, discourses on the vagaries of class and education. The production maintains a vibrant emotional pitch throughout and features performances that are delightful and credible.

Theatre 40 at the Reuben Cordova Theater, 241 S. Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills; Sun., 2 & 7 p.m.; Mon.-Wed. (through June 18), 8 p.m. (added perf Fri., June 6, 8 p.m.); through June 23. (310) 364-0535, www.theatre40.org