So much of the success of Willy Russell’s ivory-spired two-hander rests on the chemistry between its actors. The play traces a woman’s self-empowerment through education via her relationship with a world-weary Open University academic, but there is stiffness here between Rita (Alexandra Mardell) and Frank (Dominic Mafham) as they get acquainted.
Frank learns of Rita’s desperate ambition for life beyond her job as a hairdresser and role as wife. Rita hears about his history as a published poet – and picks up on his inveterate drinking. In director Cara Nolan’s production, the dynamic between the pair does not pop in the early scenes, not through any lack of trying, especially on the part of Mardell. She makes a broad, vivacious scouser who has enrolled on to an English literature Open University course in hope to expand her intellectual horizons.
