Act 1 Rita Comedy Analysis

The opening scene does conform the play as a comedy for many reasons. Willy Russell demonstrates comedy in Act 1 Scene 1 by using cultural references through the characters of Rita and Frank. Comedy is also created through miscommunication, slapstick humour, juxtapositions and bawdy humour. The play was set in the 1980s when the class system was a divide between Upper class, Middle class and the Working class, Willy Russell Shows the different classes through the characters of Rita and Frank, how Frank is a middle class tutor and Rita is working class, this can create comedy in the play as this difference can be used in many ways.
Firstly as the play was set in the 1980s, the class difference was recognised, Willy Russell demonstrates the …show more content…
To Frank this can be quite unsettling as he is not familiar with this type of attitude from women as in those days women were not expected to use language such as this and are seen as delicate. Rita also explains how she changed her name from ‘Susan’ to ‘Rita’ she claims she would like to be referred to as Rita after ‘Rita Mae Brown’ an American author of ‘Rubyfruit Jungle’ this dealt with lesbian themes in an explicit manner which is again unusual for the time and was not very stereo-typical of women of this day. This emphasises the age gap between Rita and Frank and can largely be perceived as comedic to the audience. ‘The basic formula for comedy has had more to do with conventions and expectations of plot and character than with a requirement for lewd joes or cartoonish pratfalls’ I agree with this statement as it is demonstrating how comedy can be created through sexual references which can be shown through Rita and Frank, predominantly through the major age gap and the way Rita is not stereo-typical woman of the …show more content…
This is largely seen through dramatic devices such as slapstick humour, miscommunication, bawdy humour and juxtapositions. These comedic devices highly present the play as humorous and comedic to the audience as it can display how Frank and Rita clash in ways that you wouldn’t expect due to age difference and class differences. Furthermore the opening scene also gives us an insight of the characters life for example how Rita is of a working class however is not seen as the stereo typical women of the 1980’s and in some respects how Frank can also not be fully stereo typical of men in this era. This can display signs of emotion in the opening scene however Willy Russell still largely implies the play as a comedy purely through the opening