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"AN EFFERVESCENT CROWD-PLEASER! The is play has craft and wit and heart, and moments of piercing truth, too." — The Boston Globe

In Educating Rita, Rita, a brash, young hairdresser with a free spirit, is hungry to improve her lot in life. When she enrolls at the local university, she discovers a passion for literature and turns her boozy and burnt-out professor's life upside down in this award-winning comedy.

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Articles

  • Willy Russell, Liverpool, and Culture

    Playwright Willy Russell grew up in the most influential culture of the 20th century just as it was about to explode: working class Liverpool.

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  • An Interview with Maria Aitken

    Tony Award-nominated British director Maria Aitken returns to the Huntington to direct Educating Rita.

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  • Reading with Rita

    In Willy Russell’s contemporary classic Educating Rita, a hairdresser with a thirst for knowledge enrolls in a course at a university in northern England. When they first meet, Frank, Rita’s burnt-out, alcoholic professor, quickly understands that she is no ordinary student.

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Press Reviews

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    "AN EFFERVESCENT CROWD-PLEASER! The is play has craft and wit and heart, and moments of piercing truth, too. Part of the enjoyment is watching what Jane Pfitsch and Andrew Long, two skilled actors, bring out of each other. Pfitsch is a delight, consistently finding fresh ways to bring a comic fizz to the proceedings. Long displays expert timing and a gift for the double-take." — The Boston Globe
    "EXQUISITE! Educating Rita merits high grades. Jaane Pfitsch and Andrew Long are both exquisitely comfortable in their characterizations. 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." — BroadwayWorld.com
    "A delightful comedy! After a long, cold winter, Educating Rita is a breath of springtime." — BerkshireFineArts.com
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Features

  • How a Play Dresses for Success

    From BU Today, March 17, 2011: "Creating a successful costume is no small feat, and it's the daily mission of the Huntington's costume director Nancy Brennan . . . "

  • The Old School Approach to Educating Rita

    From The Boston Globe, March 6, 2011: "Aitken, 65, was last at the Huntington in 2007, directing her London hit The 39 Steps, on its way to a two-year Broadway run. In that fast-paced comedy, four actors played more than 150 roles. This time, two actors play two roles in a single setting, the professor's office, and the laugh lines have a more serious context: a young woman's yearning for knowledge and her determination to put off childbearing, despite her husband's wishes. . . . "

Artists

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