Our family do enjoy a trip to the theatre. Often that means a musical, but we are up for drama too. Last month we went to a play featuring a big name. This week was a smaller affair, but still with a familiar face. We have seen Richard Herring doing standup and his interview show as well as listening to his podcasts. I know he lives fairly locally and we saw he was appearing at the Queen Mother Theatre in Hitchin in a production of Educating Rita
We were familiar with this story by Willy Russell via the 1983 film starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters. The play scales it down to one location and two actors. Rita is a working class hairdresser who feels that there must be more to life and signs up for a course in literature. Her tutor is failed poet and alcoholic Frank who lectures at a university despite not being keen on students. Rita is a breath of fresh air and we see the evolution of their relationship as she visits his study for her tutorials.
Although Frank is in a relationship and much older he obviously fancies Rita, but she is focused on changing her life. That causes some issues with her own marriage.
The clash of cultures has echoes of Pygmalion (that became the musical My Fair Lady) and it makes for an entertaining play with plenty of laughs. It it touching at times too. Anna Morris is excellent as Rita and Mr Herring does a great job too. Although he is getting through plenty of 'whisky' in the play I do not think he actually drinks these days. As it is just the two of them there are a lot of lines, but they only needed prompting once.
The performance was in the small studio at the theatre with only about eighty seats, that were all full. It is run by volunteers. I noticed that this wing was opened fairly recently by a British acting 'legend'. It was really convenient for us as it is only about fifteen minutes away with easy parking.
The play lasted a couple of hours with an interval and there is a small bar in the foyer. This was our first visit there and we will look out for other productions.