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By coincidence, we have been to see productions of two of Willy Russell’s smash-hit plays, Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine in the couple of weeks before the coronavirus shutdown.

Stephen Tompkinson and Jessica Johnson in Educating Rita © Robert Day

In the space of six extraordinarily creative years in the 1980s, the Liverpool-born playwright, lyricist and composer Willy Russell penned the three works with which his name has become so closely associated. First came Educating Rita, first produced at the Donmar Warehouse in 1980, before transferring to the Piccadilly Theatre for a two-year run.

Then in 1983 came his award-winning musical Blood Brothers – which went on to enjoy a 24-year run in the West End and retains the record as the third longest running musical. The same year saw the release of the Oscar-nominated film of Educating Rita, starring Julie Walters (the original Rita from the play) and Michael Caine.

Russell returned to his native city for the opening of his next huge hit – Shirley Valentine. After opening at the Everyman Theatre in 1986, it transferred to the West End two years later and then to Broadway for a season starring Pauline Collins, garnering another clutch of awards in the process. This play too was turned into an Oscar-nominated film in 1989, in which Pauline Collins reprised her starring role.

By coincidence, we have had the opportunity to see contemporary productions of the two plays in the last few weeks. First, at the Devonshire Park Theatre here in Eastbourne, came Educating Rita which was on what was planned to be an extended UK tour. It starred Stephen Tompkinson and Jessica Johnson, who gave excellent and convincing performances in the two-hander.

The play tells the story of Rita, a feisty young hairdresser with aspirations for a better life, who has enrolled for an Open University course on English Literature. Frank, a frustrated poet turned university lecturer, has taken on the job of Open University tutor/mentor in order to earn some extra money, mainly to fund his drinking habit.

As their relationship develops, we see Rita grow as a person, leaving her husband and her job, moving on to a new and exciting life. At the same time, Frank’s life is going the other way – already divorced but in another relationship, his drinking drives his girlfriend away too and then – when he appears drunk at a lecture once too often – jeopardises his job.

Rita’s story is in many ways an inspiring one – how a working-class girl in a dead-end job and a loveless marriage can escape into a new world through education. But it’s also slightly depressing, as she comes to realise that having an education didn’t do Frank much good – he feels as trapped by his job and circumstances as she did.

In the end, it’s his university’s insistence on a secondment in Australia that breaks the logjam – and makes Rita realise that, for all his faults, it’s Frank that might make her happy.

Heather Alexander as Shirley ValentineThe one-handed monologue Shirley Valentine picks up some of the same themes, but in this case, the heroine is in her forties. Having married young, she now has grown-up children who’ve left home. She’s trapped in an apparently loveless marriage with an emotionally-stunted husband who appears to take little interest in her – other than to chastise her if his tea is late or comprises a dish outside his normal routine.

While Rita dreamt of liberation through education, Shirley dreams of travelling. Her dreams seem to be about to come true when her feminist best friend offers to fund a two-week holiday on a Greek island. But can she find the courage to defy her stay-at-home husband and just go?

Eventually she does, and sets off, leaving a note on the kitchen door for her husband and a freezer full of food. However, when she gets to Greece, her dreams are more than fulfilled and she decides to stay, getting a job in a local bar – much to her husband’s dismay.

Any actor who takes on the part of Shirley faces an enormous challenge – never off stage, and with a long script, the need for split-second timing of the jokes and the right balance of comedy and pathos. In the production we saw last week at Eastbourne’s Grove Theatre, Heather Alexander rose to the challenge beautifully. She’s no stranger to the role, having played it several years ago and again last year in Festivals in Hollywood and New York. It was an excellent performance – funny, moving and ultimately very satisfying.

Though they were written some thirty and more years ago, it struck us that both plays were still hugely relevant to modern life. Material and technological advances in the intervening period have been huge, but there are still too many people who feel powerless and trapped through their lack of aspiration or education – and many others who feel stuck in loveless relationships – for the sake of the kids perhaps, or just because they crave security or fear loneliness. Rita and Shirley should offer inspiration to them all.

Shirley Valentine was the last thing we saw in the theatre before the great close-down began this week and is a fitting memory to keep by us until we can experience the joys of live theatre again.