Educating Rita with Claire Sweeney and Matthew Kelly

Educating Rita by Willy Russell, at the Menier Chocolate Factory, an Off West End venue in Southwark, south London from 25 April to 12 May 2012, before a UK national tour 2012.

Starring Claire Sweeney (Rita), Matthew Kelly (Dr Frank Bryant).

Directed by Tamara Harvey, designed by Tim Shortall, by Paul Anderson.

The Pygmalion like account of a young, brash Liverpudlian hairdresser trying to enrich her life by going on an English Lit Open University course. Her fresh, unschooled reaction to the classics challenges the attitudes of the University and her lecturer Frank, who begins to question his own understanding of his work and himself.

- by Darren Dalglish