Educating Rita at Shattered Globe Theatre | Theater review

Russell’s 1980 work could be viewed as a Pygmalion for the Thatcher era: Working-class hairdresser Rita—an assumed name, taken in honor of author Rita Mae Brown—comes to self-loathing, alcoholic poetry professor Frank in search of tutoring under the U.K.’s Open University system. Over the course of a bazillion meetings in Frank’s dusty office, where he hides bottles of booze behind his books, Rita inches toward a “proper” education that might damp her unique spark, while Frank too changes as he grows accustomed to her face.

It’s the kind of play that announces its intentions in every line. “I have got a lot to learn, haven’t I!” Rita exclaims early on; later, declaring her autonomy from her mentor, she quotes Eliza Doolittle directly: “I can do without you.” We’re able to track the static, schematic outline of the story several steps ahead of the characters. White, an appealing young actress who’s hummed with electricity in shows like About Face’s Stupid Kids and Bailiwick’s Passing Strange, is oddly muted as the purportedly garish Rita. Woodard, meanwhile, overstresses Frank’s shambolic misery. Could be the actors are hamstrung by Russell’s insistence on underlining every theme and explicating every metaphor; they’re left with nothing to play.