I believe that the opening scenes of Educating Rita are extremely effective in introducing the characters of Frank and Rita to the audience, not only through the speech but also by the setting and the props. The opening scenes establish the two characters of Frank and Rita firmly in the spectator's mind.
However one has to decide whether it is better to show the characters fully to the audience in the first few scenes than it is to introduce the audience to the characters in the beginning scenes and allow those characters to grow and develop throughout the entirety of the play.Therefore allowing the audience to learn and discover new things instead of the same few characteristics being repeatedly confirmed. The opening scene begins with a large description of the area and setting of t
...he play. The audience learns that it is set somewhere in the North of England, which is a region associated with the working classes as it is an extremely industrial area. The setting of the entire play is in Frank's university room is described, as is Frank before the end of the first page.
From this first, speech including, paragraph the viewer establishes Frank as an English professor for an open university in the North of England, an alcoholic as the play opens with Frank searching for his hidden alcohol which is hidden behind his novels. Frank drinks the alcohol form a mug, showing that his actions are not accepted in society and are therefore concealed. He is shown as though he is slightly eccentric from his behaviour as he mutters to himself when alone in his room, in search of his
bottle of whisky. "Where the hell..
.? Eliot? ... No..
. E' ... 'E', 'e' 'e' .
.. Dickens. "The introductory scene also shows Frank as a jaded and miserable fellow. He is disillusioned about his job, has problems in his personal relationships, shown in his telephone conversation with a woman believed to be his partner, "Yes? ..
. Of course I'm still here. ... What do you mean am I determined to go to the pub? I don't need determination to get me into a pub.
.. " He seems frustrated with this woman's nagging and seems as though he doesn't wish to be involved in this relationship with his ex-student any longer.His words, "appalling teaching," tell the viewer that Frank dislikes himself and feels inner depression and shows this outwardly by putting himself down.
Rita's comment, "like a geriatric hippie," tells the spectator that Frank doesn't take care of himself and wears clothes from previous decades and allows his hair to grow freely. The viewer discovers that Frank I trying to escape the self that he loathes so greatly. This first scene solidly describes Frank's character and personality. After Frank's brief introduction to the audience, Rita is brusquely brought into the play.She comes in as though she has confidence and a mind of her own, this is shown by the 'dumping' of her bag onto the chair and by telling Frank rather impolitely to get a move on with fixing his door handle. This is rather a bold act of Rita as she has never before met Frank and he is to be her tutor, conventionally a student would never talk to their teacher in that tone of
voice, however Rita paying no heed to convention does so.
Frank attempts to put Rita in her place by asking, "You are? " However Rita fails to understand him and replies, "What am I? , this indicates her lack of education and her working class background as she takes a simple question as a sarcastic remark. Rita is portrayed as someone who wants to change and be perceived as a person of intelligence, not a common hairdresser. This is illustrated by her comments on the print of the nude, religious scene. "This was the pornography of its day wasn't it? .
.. But in those days they had to pretend it wasn't erotic so they made it religious, didn't they? ..
. " This desire to appear educated is also depicted by her changing her name.Rita changes her name to Rita from Susan after the author, Rita Mae Brown, who wrote her favourite book, Rubyfruit Jungle. She wishes to seem intelligent but displays her lack of education by choosing Rita, the more common name instead of keeping her name as Susan, which was the more superior of the two. Rita is also shown as an innocently hypocritical character as she criticises the women who try to change themselves superficially when she is trying to change herself by taking English lessons. But these women, you see, they come to the hairdresser's cos they wanna be changed.
But if you want to change y' have to do it from the inside, don't y? " She doesn't realise that it doesn't matter how you change yourself but you are doing it nonetheless.Again the first scene introduces more of Rita's character. Rita
wants to be cultured and understand things. She is eager to learn, not in order to make money but to really change.
This is shown by her words as well as her actions, "Because I wanna know. ... Everything.
The methodical placing of her stationery as well as her copy of 'Howards End' on the desk displays her wish to learn. Again the opening scenes describe Rita's character by the stage directions as well as the dialect.Not only do the beginning scenes introduce the two characters to the audience but they also emphasize Frank and Rita's different backgrounds by the exaggeration of their personalities and characters. Frank plays up his academia by using phrases such as, "It's supposed to embrace a more comprehensive studentship, yes. Also by assuming that Rita is referring to Dylan Thomas, a poet whose works must be interpreted when Rita is referring to Roger McGough whose poetry can be understood by anyone without a second or third reading.
Rita's working class background is accentuated by her dialect, mainly by the shortening of words and by her accent. Their constant misunderstandings stress their different backgrounds, Frank's educated, middle class lifestyle and Rita's common, uneducated lifestyle. Rita says, "Soon as I walked in here I said to meself, 'Y' can tell he's a Flora man. .. No, Flora, the bleedin ' margarine, no cholesterol.
.. " Frank confused by her remark associates Flora with flowers due to his education in the classics (Flora means flowers in Latin). This shows his instinctive relation to his education.
However Rita is associating Flora with the margarine, which was the first healthy, butter type spread, which the middle class
ate regardless of its expense whereas the working class would eat anything cheap regardless of its health factors.Not only do these misunderstandings accentuate their difference, they also bring humour into the play. The opening scenes, entertainingly introduce the two contrasting characters of Frank and Rita to the audience. Frank, a jaded, educated professional who feels suppressed by the system compared to Rita, a jubilant and unique individual who enters like a reath of fresh air into Frank's miserable and drunken life.
