3 – 7 May
When it comes to considering those women who have had the most influence on the lives of other women, one name that should be near the top of the list is Jenny Lee, the Labour government minister who was instrumental in setting up the Open University during the premiership of Harold Wilson. Arguably her legacy has done more to improve the lives of those men and women left behind by the education system, and in particular those women whose lives have been blighted by a patriarchal society which failed (and fails) to understand and acknowledge their potential, than any other single measure.
The great simplicity of Willy Russell’s play belies the complex issues it touches on with laudable and entertaining clarity. Not only is it a case of self-improvement for Rita, a yearning for feeding that inchoate part of her inner, intellectual life and personality, but a key to the personal autonomy which is the foundation of any free society.
When Rita enriches her inner life she gains that autonomy and Frank loses the hold he had over her and his wistful invitation to accompany him to Australia is more in sorrow than in expectation. Frank’s gradual disintegration as he succumbs to alcohol is in direct correlation to Rita’s inner growth and emerging intellectual confidence.
The causal connection is not shy in the co-directed production by Anna Friend and Adam David Elms. The direction is clear in its tracking of the emotional and intellectual journeys of the two characters as well as picking at the scab of social patriarchy, which lies at the core of the play. The show is well paced and not afraid of the odd pregnant silence which speaks of a confidence in the actors’ ability to hold the audience.
The arc of Rita’s journey is tack sharp in Emelye Moulton’s peart portrayal. We can almost smell the breeze in her soap-fresh intellectual innocence and eagerness as she steps into the – for her – alien world of academia. Like a chrysalis before it turns into a butterfly she pulsates with the better self she knows is within reach. However Ms Moulton does not give us an empty vessel or tabula rasa, but someone full of life who recognizes the potential, in herself and surrounding wider culture, for a more interesting life journey.
Steve Huggins as Frank gives us a man who seems to be attempting to drink himself out of his suffocating tweed jacket, which is almost as much a prison as is Rita’s tarty outfit when she first appears in his study. As Dysart, the psychiatrist is jealous of the imaginative life of Alan in Equus, so Frank is jealous of the sheer zeal for life of Rita.
This Schoolhouse production is a solid and engaging revival that retains the relevance of the play’s original outing in the eighties.
★★★★☆ Graham Wyles 4th May
Photo credit: Craig Fuller
