The question invites critical attention to the effectiveness of the two characters and the limited action in the drama. These factors may be limitations, but one could maintain that such constraints enhance the quality of the play in a good production.

In addition to discussing the two characters and the action answers will probably comment on a range of other dramatic features, such as setting, props and lighting. These too, arguably, contribute to the play's effectiveness.

The limitations on characters and action of the play may well be a deliberate choice by Russell.They create conciseness. Educating Rita is a short play with only two acts, each with seven relatively short scenes. So the audience concentrate on the charactes, events and action. There is a sharp focus, little distraction and a sense of continuity throughout.

Characters and action

➤ Characters and actions are sufficiently dramatic: for example

● Frank soon finds Rita fascinating (Act 1 scene 1); their different class backgrounds prove a successful recipe for attracting attention.

● she has a character very different from Frank, evident in what she tells him:

🇴 she seems well-organised, he doesn't; he has never opened the window or bothered about the creaking door but she takes a practical interest in them.

🇴 she is sensible about drink but he abuses it.

🇴 she is enthusiastic about learning everything but he is disillusioned as a teacher and poet and doesn't want to teach her.

● she expresses her views directly

🇴 using coarse language, whereas he tries to avoid it (not always successfully).

🇴 telling him he needs a haircut (Act 1 scene 1; Act 5 scene 7).

● the two characters become quickly involved in personal confidences as well as the need for her to learn about literature exams; in Act 1 scene 2 for example, the two topics are interestingly intertwined: Frank doesn't see what his marriage has to do with Rita learning literature.

● the gap in Rita's understanding of literature exams is comically clear: she writes one-word essays and thinks them sufficient (Act 1 scene 3); but she clearly develops an interest in literature:e.g. her enthusiasm for a Shakespeare play she has just seen at the theatre (Act 1 scene 5); we want to know how she progresses on the course.

● references through the play to what happens off-stage actually increase interest:

🇴 Rita often talks critically about the society she lives in - pubs, songs, television-which contrasts dramatically with the university's academic environment.

🇴 Rita's husband burns her books when he is jealous of her taking lessons at the Open University(Act 1 scene 4).

🇴 Frank tells Rita Julia has left him (Act 2 scene 1) and she tells him Denny threatened to leave her (Act I scene 7). Possibly, the audience wonders if the two characters will have an affair.

🇴 Frank's report that the students complained about his drinking (Act 2 scene 3) heightens tension: will Frank be dismissed?

➤ Each character changes and develops during the play

● Frank changes from a drink-sodden disillusioned teacher who does not enjoy life to a man who still has drink problems and these intensify. He is sent off to Australia when students complain. However,Frank has come to feel not only a professional responsibility for Rita but real regard. He invites her to come with him to Australia (Act 2 scene 7). Frank's change is internal. He changes from 'Mr Self-Pitying Piss-Artist' to someone who realises his own worth as a good teacher.

● Rita begins as an unsure and perhaps unlikely student who is determined to learn about her subject and pass her exams. She is increasingly involved in academic matters, debating with her peers in the university (Act 2 scene 2). She also develops care for Frank, gives him a present to encourage him to resume poetry writing (Act 2, scene 1) and helps him, for instance, when he has to pack to leave (Act 2 scene 7).

It might also be stated that

➤ setting concentrates theme: the fact that the whole action takes place in Frank's office gives unity to the main theme of education. So brevity promotes coherence.

➤ props are motivating: for instance,

● Frank intrigues the audience and makes them laugh by revealing a bottle of Scotch hidden away behind his books (Act 1 scene 1).

● the door which is hard to open is another dramatic start and is returned to when she re-enters and oils it (Act 1 scene 2): comedy is developed in little details.

● the end scene of Act 2 involves two tea-chests being moved about as Rita helps Frank to pack for Australia.

The answer might consider the scope of what is meant by teaching. Does it mean teaching about literature (e.g. Blake or Rubyfruit Jungle) or about the world and herself (e.g. how she should be herself regardless of the others)? The more probable focus will be on teaching literature and associated traditions. Here the focus will be mainly on this. However, if candidates wish they can offer some comments on what he teaches her about herself. For instance, he sometimes tells her she should just try to be herself- when she says she was afraid to go to his party as she didn't know what she should say (Act 1 scene 6), or again when he reproves her for aiming to talk in a way she thinks is correct (Act 2 scene 2).

Candidates may conclude that Rita makes progress despite Frank's teaching. Arguing against the view that Frank is an effective teacher will probably involve focusing on Frank's personal weaknesses. Frank:

➤ is not happy about his teaching work, including the Open University work that he has never experienced before (Act 1, scene 1).

➤ is not motivated to teach Rita at first as he tells her in the opening scene.

➤ drinks heavily and has done so partly to escape from the students he often doesn't like (Act 1 scene 1).

➤ considers himself an 'appalling teacher'.

➤ gets into trouble with the school authorities when his students complain he was drunk in class (Act 2 scene 3): clearly, Frank's drink problem undermines his effectiveness as a teacher to some extent.

Although these factors count against him as a teacher, Frank evidently has much to say about literature and also a sense of what Rita needs to learn about studying, as he:

➤ teaches her that essays are not supposed to contain one sentence only(Act 1 scene 3).

➤ tactfully points out that her written piece on Rubyfruit Jungle needs to be not just about its plot but other modes of criticism such as theme and narrative type (Act 1 scene 2).

➤ suggests that criticism should aim to be objective (Act 1 scene 2).

➤ professes that exam answering has certain rules to be observed (as a kind of game).

➤ teaches her that she will learn better by reading things herself and concluding, not waiting for him to tell her the answers (Act 1 scene 3).

➤ agrees to take her to the theatre even though he finds it boring (Act 1 scene 4).

➤ talks at length with her about distinctions between 'tragedy' and 'tragic' (Act 1 scene 5).

By Act two Frank's teaching seems to have benefitted Rita as she appears to be getting quite advanced in her literary studies. She

➤ talks to him entertainingly about Blake and parody (Act 2 scene 1).

➤ talks to students heatedly about two D.H. Lawrence novels (Act 2 scene 2).

➤ talks at length with Frank about different interpretations of a Blake poem and challenges his reading as being too subjective (earlier he told her she had been so) (Act 2 scene 3).

➤ gets Frank to concede she has done all he taught her about reading sources and talking to others about literature (Act 2 scene 3).

Frank further encourages Rita, telling her that she is good enough to pass her exam (Act 2 scene 4) and reminds her of where and when it is, receives Rita's thanks for helping her sit and pass it and her comment that he is a good teacher (Act 2 scene 7).