EDUCATING RITA Bakehouse Theatre Company Bakehouse Theatre Until 26 May 2012 Review by Maggie Wood Willy Russell is a man who can write for women like few others. "Educating Rita" is one of his best works, telling the story of the working class hairdresser Rita who seeks something more in life through education and the avenues offered by the Open University. Russell’s writing is painted in the patois of Liverpool and the importance of the accent in this play cannot be over-emphasised. Liverpool and the Scouse accent is everywhere, with geographical references and multiple meanings. The accent itself is a symbol of attitude, of poverty, of vain snobbery from both sides and especially in this play, of the class divide. It also carries the rhythm of Russell’s words; the accent relays the music of the lines so that in an almost Shakespearean way a good actor delivering those lines in that accent can make something previously impenetrable not only clearly understandable, but with those meanings laid bare. Having said that, Rita’s accent in this production only paid a fleeting visit, with a mixed bag of vowels and consonants that didn’t necessarily belong in Liverpool, but swayed between somewhere north of London and the Central Belt of Scotland, landing mostly in the Manchester area. Try as she did and making a mighty effort Ruth Fallon as Rita achieves only a surface performance. There was no grit, growl or hunger as this Rita fought for a ‘better song to sing than this’. Ms Fallon’s well-modulated tones frequently broke through and her somewhat misplaced grace and physical attraction moved this Rita from being a parody of glamour to, at times, the point of coquettery, which is not the point at all. Roger Newcombe as alcoholic lecturer Frank has more success in the role of the jaded intellectual, but the pathetic comedy of him falling in love with Rita gets somewhat foiled because of Ms Fallon’s looks – it is quite credible that Frank should fall for her in that form. Another layer is lost because it is not her looks but the innocence and rawness of Rita’s hunger that he falls for, as it reminds him of what he has lost under the layers of so many years of intellectual onanism and ivory-tower habitation. However, as Frank begins to crumble when he sees he is losing the now-empowered Rita, there are some fine moments from Newcombe in his vulnerability. Director Peter Green could have been more rigorous with the requirements of the text, but has nevertheless presented a play that is a crowd pleaser, and despite any misgivings still cuts through the landscape of current theatrical offerings as a breath of fresh air.