PAUL Norris is ideally placed to direct Educating Rita - he works at a university and he's married to Rita. 

Both have helped to smooth the way during preparations for this, the forthcoming Riverside Drama Company production. 

His work, with the careers service at Nottingham Trent University, means he has a close understanding of the academic world. And being married to Liz O'Hara, who's playing Rita in Willy Russell's comedy, has enabled them to schedule extra rehearsals pretty much whenever they want. 

Rita is a young wife working as a hairdresser in the early 1980s, who is determined to escape her working class background by improving her education. She enrols in the Open University and is assigned to Frank, an ex-poet and alcoholic who is only teaching to subsidise his drinking. 

So were there plenty of models at work for Paul to base Frank on, then? 
"No," he laughed, "absolutely not!" 

But the production will have its own identity and won't be a copy of the 1983 film, which starred Michael Caine and Julie Walters. 

"I've not seen the film - deliberately so - although both Liz and Martin have and I think I've seen the character of Frank, particularly, slightly differently from the way he was portrayed in the film. 
"I see him very much as a sort of pompous, cynical character who's continually disappointed and who has low expectations of his students. He believes he's worth a lot more than what he's doing - and he's only taking on Open University students to pay for alcohol." 

Rita's burning ambitions and desire to "know everything" contrast sharply with Frank's disillusionment with teaching. He believes that if he teaches her the accepted truths, she'll lose all that is wonderful and unique about herself. 
The clash of cultures results in a play which celebrates the joy of individual expression, as Frank finds himself recapturing some of his former enthusiasm for English and life. 

"I like the play very much," said Paul, an on-stage regular for the Long Eaton-based drama company. 
"It has a lot of depth to it. 
"As with Willy Russell's Blood Brothers, it has that feeling of humour but with great depth of emotion without getting too sickly or corny. What I like about the play is the way Rita really does change as she goes along and it explores whether changing is such a good idea."

Paul has found directing harder work than he anticipated, but said he had managed not to come to blows with his wife over the production. 

"Both cast members are very professional and talented - they've got the ability firstly to learn what has to be learned and also the moves and characterisation." 

Liz has also had to master a Liverpudlian accent (she's from Swadlincote) and Paul reckons she's got it licked now, after diverting to Birmingham on occasion at first. The group has wanted to tackle Educating Rita for some time and, with their last production, the well-received Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, running relatively recently, a small cast project seemed sensible. It also gives theatre-goers another chance to see the comedy, following the Derby Playhouse production earlier in the year. 

"I think the timing was right - the last production was in April and I think some people were fancying a break" said Paul. 

Mind you, Paul was in the title role of Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, Martin had a key part and Liz was in the assistant director's chair. 

And, as Paul points out, even with the smallest of casts, there's still a mammoth undertaking backstage. 

So it looks like, once again, enthusiasm and drive is to the fore at Riverside as they get ready to dive into their latest production. 

EDUCATING RITA
June 26-28
The Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton
Riverside Drama Company present Willy Russell's classic comedy at 7.30pm nightly.
Tickets £5 (£3.50 concessions)
Call: 0115 8750506