"Educating Rita" by Willy Russell.

Magpie Drama.

Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

For anyone who has not seen the film starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters, nor seen the play before, this is what it's all about.....

The plays follows the relationship between a 29-year-old Liverpudlian working class hairdresser called Rita and Frank, a middle-aged university lecturer, during the course of a year.

Susan (who initially calls herself Rita), dissatisfied with the routine of her work and social life, seeks inner growth by signing up for and attending an Open University course in English Literature. Frank is a middle-aged, alcoholic career academic who has taken on the tutorship to pay for his drink. The two have an immediate and deep effect on one another; Frank is impressed by Susan's verve and earnestness and is forced to re-examine his attitudes and position in life; Susan finds Frank's tutelage opens doors to a bohemian lifestyle and a new self-confidence. This new Susan though is not a personality change that Frank is all too happy about.

Willy Russell has always been a favourite of mine when it comes to stage plays - my all-time favourite musical, "Blood Brothers" is from his pen. This play is a two hander but through Russell's creative writing we also hear about the people in both Frank and Susan's life outside the confines of Frank's room, all thanks to Russell's descriptive text you feel like you have met them.

Dan Bates is Frank and Laura Davey is Susan/Rita. You have to acknowledge the amount of words these two actors have to record to memory. The play, including interval, is a touch over two and a half hours long, and when you think that this is a two-hander, that is a lot of script to remember.

There was just the one occasion requiring a prompt, which was done very subtly, and only once did we see a tripping over of words, which, to be fair was handled, on both occasions very well. Every show is different, so I don't think you'll see either of these when you come and see it because this is, after all, opening night, so those couple of incidents will be out of both actors' system. But, as I said previously, this is a massive script for just two actors. Willy Russell certainly provides "money worth" for the audience as well as the actors.

Both Dan and Laura are perfect choices for these roles, and both are brilliant at character acting and story telling. And even though I have seen this play on stage a few times, they still made me laugh in all the right places and still held my interest in what they were saying, as characters. It's a wonderfully well written story that draws you into the two characters and their back stories. 

Costume wise, Frank kept the same clothes throughout. Susan/Rita's clothes changed with the various different visits to Frank, but also her confidence grew as her educational needs were sated, which also reflected in the style of clothes, which started with electric blue leggings all the way through to a very demure but smart outfit, befitting of an educated literary lady. This also reflects Frank's standing, educationally, as staying where he is, while his student's star is ascending, along with her style and fashion sense.

Directed by Elle Bates who has taken the decision to not use the Liverpudlian accent for Susan. I've seen this play on several occasions and every time Susan has had the Scouse accent, keeping in line with the original play character description. The choice to lose the accent and keep Susan's accent close to home is something that should be opted for more often as not every actor can pull off a believable Liverpudlian brogue; it's also not the easiest of accents to keep up throughout the course of a play, especially when you're one half of the onstage cast. This also shows that the characters of Frank, who has a more RP accent, and Susan can come from anywhere in the country and do not need to be tied to one region.

The regional aspect also comes into play where in Act two, Rita tells Frank about the literary discussion she has with a fellow student, Tiger Tyson, about the better of two plays "Lady Chatterley's Lover" or "Sons And Lovers" by DH Lawrence. Plus earlier on in the play there's mention of an area of Nottingham, which I won't give away.

Set design is also by Rachel Bates, and I fell in love with the set as soon as I entered the auditorium. There books, books and books, bookcases, filing cabinets, desks, chairs; everything I'd have expected from the play area of a poet and literary tutor. The furniture was provided by Katie Bird.

Sound by Rachel Bates also. You'll love the incidental music used for the scene changes. Classical arrangements of hits from the 1980's, with a couple of original songs thrown into the mix.

Lighting by David Martin, and with a production like this, all you need is a fade down and a fade up to indicate the changing in the scenes, simple and effective.

Lovers of intoxicating theatre will love this show, as will anyone who enjoys strong character-driven theatre.

"Educating Rita" is at the Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton until Wednesday 9 October and then transfers to the Melbourne Assembly Rooms for one performance on Friday 11 October.