Playwright: Willy Russell. At: Shattered Globe Theatre at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago. Phone: 773-236-0764; $23-$28. Runs through: Aug. 14
It's apt that Shattered Globe Theatre is wrapping up its 19th season with Willy Russell's Educating Rita. Like the play's heroine who makes an active decision to rise above her circumstances, the reorganized Shattered Globe (boasting the upgrade "2.0" in its logo) is striving toward a new future despite a decision more than a year ago to disband the company.
Educating Rita debuted in 1980 and became even more famous thanks to a 1983 film version starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters. With it's tale of a Liverpool hairdresser who enrolls in a one-on-one Open University literature course, Educating Rita is essentially a two-character modern twist on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion.
Shattered Globe could have presented Educating Rita as a 1980s period piece, but director Richard Corley has opted instead to move the drama up to today. For the most part, the time shift isn't too much of an issue.
Dr. Frank Bryant's disheveled book-strewn office (complete with bottles of booze behind selected authors) can easily reflect the jaded professor's lack of enthusiasm for teaching and his refusal to keep current with the times (note how Chelsea Warren's gothic-window-dominated set design initially omits any kind of computer).
However, there are moments in the text that don't always sync with Shattered Globe's updating.
Corley's casting of African-American actor Whitney White as Rita is unquestionably one of strong merit. White is more than up to the demands of honestly portraying a 26-year-old woman who hungers for more cultural sustenance to enrich her life. (White's British accent also sticks around more convincingly than the one employed by her co-star.).
When Rita bemoans her community's lack of a distinctive culture, one questions how her character could have missed out on her mother's lessons of Black pride from the 1960s and '70s. One also wishes for the specific cultural details of Britain's Black community in Rita's upbringing that unfortunately are not in Russell's pre-existing text.
As it stands, White is great a getting across Rita's frustrations with mundane working-class life and her joys of discovering literary insights from her teacher. In addition, Brad Woodard is also very good at showing Frank's revitalized passion for teaching, thanks to Rita.
However, there also should be a better hint of sexual tension between Rita and Frank, and it's hard to believe that White's stylish Rita would ever fall for Woodard's Frank (especially with the unflattering wig and slovenly clothing Woodard wears throughout the production).
Shattered Globe's Educating Rita is by no means perfect. Yet it's still a worthwhile enterprise with its forceful message of the arts aiding in one woman's overriding sense of self-improvement and happiness.