Actors perform admirably, but script leans on stereotypes

“Educating Rita”



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The chamber-music remakes of ’80s new-wave tunes that play between scenes of North Coast Rep’s “Educating Rita” capture neatly the culture clash at the heart of the story.

The show even opens with a strings-saturated cut by a band from Liverpool (Echo and the Bunnymen), the British city where the discontented young hairdresser Rita and the dissipated, middle-aged college professor Frank meet for tutoring sessions circa 1980.

Where a sense of music feels missing much of the time, though, is in Willy Russell’s play itself.

The show boasts finely tuned performances by Meghan Andrews as the rough-edged but eager Rita, and Bjørn Johnson as the cynical and hard-drinking Frank. It’s set entirely in a cluttered office that’s expertly conceived by resident NCRT designer Marty Burnett, with Gothic-arch windows that hint at the high church of knowledge Frank’s institution represents.

And the script is spiced with references to everything from Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt” to the pop poet and Beatles collaborator Roger McGough to “Rubyfruit Tuesday,” the pulpy novel that’s one of Rita’s early obsessions. (The show’s program includes a helpful glossary for such terms as “plonk,” a Britishism for cheap wine.)

Somehow, though, what could be an entirely lively duet between the cheeky working-class gal and the bollixed but bewitched academic instead tends to play out in monotone, with scattered laugh lines and a few touching scenes that feel as if they owe their impact more to acting than storytelling.

It’s hard to fault director Rosina Reynolds for the show’s shortage of spark: She clearly has worked hard to draw authentic performances from her two cast members, and she finds some rhythm to the piece despite a narrative that’s too drawn-out and scenes that can feel extraneous.

The trouble with “Rita” really is that playwright Russell (“Shirley Valentine,” “Blood Brothers”) seems more interested in the sociological than the personal. His characters personify the divide between the common people and the uppity academy, which would be fine if the representations didn’t feel so stereotyped and the people came across as a bit more flesh-and-blood.

Still, there are flashes of the raw and the real in the work of these actors. In one scene, Andrews — who gives Rita an appealing swagger — brings things to a hush as her character describes seeing her mother crying at a pub, in the middle of (supposed) merrymaking with her friends and family.

“We can sing better songs than these,” she quotes her mother as saying — a reference to the way those around her deal with their limited options by trying to drown their frustrations in drink and other diversions.

The songs are fine in this show (courtesy of sound designer Chris Luessmann); it’s the play that might be missing a few notes. (619) 293-2040 Twitter @jimhebert Facebook:


