On one level, Willy Russell's Educating Rita is a fun, little exploration of the problems with academic culture. But on a completely different level much more accessible to everyone, the dramatic comedy is a breathtakingly simple, heartfelt exploration of a friendship between two people. Renaissance Theatreworks does a brilliant job of bringing both levels of the play to the stage in a production that open just this last weekend at the Broadway theater Center Studio Theatre.
Jonathan Smoots plays alcoholic college professor is taking on the job of teaching university outreach courses for non-university students. Cristina Panfiio plays a working-class hairdresser who is looking for more than the mindless British pop culture if you find yourself.
Smoots' charisma serves the role well. A broken intellectual archetype can be fun, but such characters don't often come across very sympathetically. There's a constellation of subtleties in Smoots' performance that keep fun AND admirable throughout the play. There's an exhaustion playing around the corners of his characterization that are endearing without being pathetic. Smoots infuses quite a bit of strength into the performance that carry the character through his darker moments. The professor has grown disillusioned with the culture of university. So he's uncomfortable to a certain extent with his own tenuous sense of authority when finally presented with the student you can respect. That uncertainty comes across as breathtakingly human in a way that makes the alcoholism feel that much more understandable. Smoots delivers the intellectual complexities of the character in a way that feels very authentic.
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Cristina Panfilio has the daunting challenge of making the character of Rita come across with enough depth to seem like a fully rounded personality. The characters irreverence for convention sparkles through her performance. She wanders about the professor's study with an active interest in learning everything. When pursuit of what she seek ends up causing her to fall into conformity, Panfilio has the kind of unwavering perspicacity in tackling the role that keeps that transformation from feeling at all flat. With her wit and charm, the characters journey feels both like a triumph and a tragedy.
Smoots and Panfilio put in a vivid and entertaining performance that makes Morningrose dynamic. The scenes but along that no doubt fostered by the direction of Jenny Wanasek. The three working together have produced one of the best trips to the theatre all season.
Renaissance Theatreworks' production of Educating Rita runs through February 10th at the Broadway Theatre Center Studio Theatre. For ticket reservations, call 414-291-7800.
