Andrew Gilllies (3/10 Educating Rita revival)
Excerpt from CBC 3/19/10: Andrew Gillies
Theatre review: Educating Rita
March 19, 2010
It was the basis for a hit movie in 1983, and MTC's production of Willy Russell's Educating Rita has all the makings of a hit stage show... so it's particularly frustrating that it's not.
Set in 1979 Britain, this is a twist on the "Pygmalion" story. Here we have Rita, a hairdresser who's under-educated, but far from stupid... she's a fast-talking, wise-cracking hairdresser who wants to "better" herself. To do so, she seeks tutoring from Frank, a cynical, burnt-out alcoholic university professor whose best years are behind him.
As their story goes on, interesting questions are raised: can, and do, Rita and Frank better themselves? Is Rita better off being "educated" but losing something of herself in the process? And can Frank be saved from his downward spiral?
There's plenty of drama in these questions. And there are two fine actors in the production - MTC fave Mairi Babb as Rita, and Andrew Gillies as Frank.
....
Educating Rita runs at the John Hirsch Theatre (MTC Mainstage) until Apr. 10
© CBC
Excerpt from The Manitoban 3/23/10: Andrew Gillies
Lovely Rita: MTC production ‘delightful,’ ‘engaging’
John Herbert Cunningham | Mar 23
It’s back. Did we think that, just because, in 1983, Michael Caine and Julie Walters did such a memorable job in the movie version of Educating Rita, we would see the end of it? Did we think that this remake of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion meets Bertolt Brecht would die because a definitive version was made for the screen? If so, then thank God it didn’t, or local theatre-goers would miss out on a thoroughly endearing experience, one to which Mairi Babb, as Rita, and Andrew Gillies, as Frank, brought charm and wit.
© The Manitoban
Excerpt from Uptown Magazine 3/25/10: Andrew Gillies
Theatre Reviews
- Julijana Capone
EDUCATING RITA
Manitoba Theatre Centre
Until April 10, John Hirsh Theatre Mainstage
Willy Russell’s Educating Rita is a classic morality tale about class disparity that brims with wit and questions education.
Standing on a stepladder searching through books in an ‘Open University’ study, Frank (Andrew Gillies), a one-time poet- turned-functioning alcoholic professor, locates his bottle of Scotch behind a copy of Dickens.
Rita (Mairi Babb), a leopard-print-clad, chain-smoking, sewer-mouthed hairdresser from the English underclass in search of self-discovery, enters the study where she meets Frank, who happens to be her English Literature tutor.
This isn’t the first run of Educating Rita for Babb and Gillies. Both performed in MTC’s 2007 touring production of the play - and it shows, especially in Babb’s convincing, gusto-filled delivery.
© Uptown Mag