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Plays 1: Breezeblock Park / Our Day Out / Stags and Hens / Educating Rita
Breezeblock Park is set on a northern council estate and takes a look at the suffocating effect of possessions and possessiveness: "Trenchantly observed…hilarious, upsetting and somewhat seditious." (Variety); Our Day Out is about a school coach trip, an exuberant celebration of the joys and agonies of growing up - "a Dickensian fairytale…I have rarely seen a show that combined such warmth and such bleakness."(The Times); Stags and Hens "takes place in the gents and Ladies loos of a tacky Liverpool club, where Dave and Linda have decided, unbeknownst to each other to hold their stag and hen parties…a bleakly funny and perceptive study of working-class misogyny, puritanism and waste" (Guardian); Educating Rita: "one way of describing Educating Rita would be to say that it was about the meaning of education…another would be to say that it was about the meaning of life. A third, that it is a cross between Pygmalion and Lucky Jim. A fourth, that it is simply a marvellous play, painfully funny and passionately serious: a hilarious social documentary; a fairy-tale with a quizzical, half-happy ending." (Sunday Times)
384 pages, Paperback
First published August 12, 1996
3 people are currently reading
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About the author
Willy Russell
47 books84 followersWilliam Russell is a British dramatist, lyricist, and composer. His best-known works are Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine, and Blood Brothers.
Willy Russell was born in Whiston, on the outskirts of Liverpool, where he grew up. His parents worked in a book publisher's and often encouraged him to read. After leaving school with one O-level in English, he first became a ladies' hairdresser and ran his own salon. Russell then undertook a variety of jobs, also the first play he wrote was Keep Your Eyes Down Low (1975). His first success was a play about The Beatles called John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert. Originally commissioned for the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool was transferring to the West End in 1974. Educating Rita (1980) concerned a female hairdresser and her Open University teacher. The semi-autobiographical Educating Rita was turned into a 1983 film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters. The musical Blood Brothers (1983), for which Russell also composed the music, first opened in Liverpool and transferred to London's Phoenix Theatre. It won the best actress award at the Lawrence Olivier awards. Bill Kenwright produced a revival in 1988 which has run for more than twenty years; the show was produced on Broadway in 1993. Shirley Valentine, which first opened in Liverpool in 1986 before a new production opened in London in 1988 starring Pauline Collins. It was also made into a successful film, in 1989, again with Collins in the title role. Russell received BAFTA and Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for both Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine.
Russell has also written television projects, including the one-off drama, Our Day Out, which aired in 1977. He penned another television drama, One Summer, which aired as a five-part series on Channel 4 in 1983, starring a young David Morrissey.
In 2000, Russell published his first novel, The Wrong Boy. In epistolary form, main character Raymond Marks, a 19-year old from Manchester, tells the story of his life in letters to his hero Morrissey.
Russell has written songs since the early 1960s, and has written the music to most of his plays and musicals. He also co-wrote "The Show", the theme song to the 1985 ITV drama series Connie, which became a top 30 hit for vocalist Rebecca Storm. His first album, Hoovering the Moon, was released in 2003.
The Willy Russell Centre for Children and Adults Who Stammer, was opened by Russell in Liverpool, 1996. The centre took Russell's name as his writing in many of his plays puts forward the philosophy that anyone is capable of change whatever obstacles may be in their path, a theory shared by the centre.
Willy Russell was born in Whiston, on the outskirts of Liverpool, where he grew up. His parents worked in a book publisher's and often encouraged him to read. After leaving school with one O-level in English, he first became a ladies' hairdresser and ran his own salon. Russell then undertook a variety of jobs, also the first play he wrote was Keep Your Eyes Down Low (1975). His first success was a play about The Beatles called John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert. Originally commissioned for the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool was transferring to the West End in 1974. Educating Rita (1980) concerned a female hairdresser and her Open University teacher. The semi-autobiographical Educating Rita was turned into a 1983 film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters. The musical Blood Brothers (1983), for which Russell also composed the music, first opened in Liverpool and transferred to London's Phoenix Theatre. It won the best actress award at the Lawrence Olivier awards. Bill Kenwright produced a revival in 1988 which has run for more than twenty years; the show was produced on Broadway in 1993. Shirley Valentine, which first opened in Liverpool in 1986 before a new production opened in London in 1988 starring Pauline Collins. It was also made into a successful film, in 1989, again with Collins in the title role. Russell received BAFTA and Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for both Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine.
Russell has also written television projects, including the one-off drama, Our Day Out, which aired in 1977. He penned another television drama, One Summer, which aired as a five-part series on Channel 4 in 1983, starring a young David Morrissey.
In 2000, Russell published his first novel, The Wrong Boy. In epistolary form, main character Raymond Marks, a 19-year old from Manchester, tells the story of his life in letters to his hero Morrissey.
Russell has written songs since the early 1960s, and has written the music to most of his plays and musicals. He also co-wrote "The Show", the theme song to the 1985 ITV drama series Connie, which became a top 30 hit for vocalist Rebecca Storm. His first album, Hoovering the Moon, was released in 2003.
The Willy Russell Centre for Children and Adults Who Stammer, was opened by Russell in Liverpool, 1996. The centre took Russell's name as his writing in many of his plays puts forward the philosophy that anyone is capable of change whatever obstacles may be in their path, a theory shared by the centre.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 6, 2007
A series of mildly patronising, crass and (perhaps unintentionally) derogatory plays concerned with the plight of working-class Liverpudlians. Typical themes regarding the restrictions and broken dreams that come with blue-collar life are addressed, however, Russell's characters seem to be little more than soap-operatic caricatures of the people they represent, quite often appearing to be moronic, foolish and incapable of anything more than banal discourse. It's accurate at times, but too often it's also mildly insulting.
January 12, 2026
Pretty disappointing. The jokes lie rather dead on the page and the themes are obvious and repetitive.
April 26, 2022
So, how do you rate such a mixed collection? I almost wrote off the whole thing as absolute shite, but then I read Educating Rita.
Breezeblock Park was supposed to be a comedy of manners about lower-working-class life. What it actually felt like was a patronising caricature. Our Day Out is a sentimental, light-hearted musical. Stags and Hens is another quite cynical examination of working-class life.
However, Educating Rita was much better. Being a mature student from a working-class background myself, I could relate immensely with this play. It perfectly captures the drive of someone trying to pull themselves up through education and the kind of no man's land between your former life and post university. It's a wonderful two-hander worthy of 3.5 or maybe 4 stars. Shame everything else in the collection was so crappy...
Breezeblock Park was supposed to be a comedy of manners about lower-working-class life. What it actually felt like was a patronising caricature. Our Day Out is a sentimental, light-hearted musical. Stags and Hens is another quite cynical examination of working-class life.
However, Educating Rita was much better. Being a mature student from a working-class background myself, I could relate immensely with this play. It perfectly captures the drive of someone trying to pull themselves up through education and the kind of no man's land between your former life and post university. It's a wonderful two-hander worthy of 3.5 or maybe 4 stars. Shame everything else in the collection was so crappy...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews