About the Writer Willy Russell :: Willy Russell Playwright biographies Essays

About the Writer Willy RussellWilliam Russell was born in Whiston - just outside Liverpool, in 1947.At primary school he enjoyed reading, football and gardening, thesewere the only subjects he likes, but at secondary school he wasconsigned to the factory fodder D stream. It was in this surprisingenvironment that he conceived the sentiment of being a writer. His onlyexperience of factory work caused him to fail to obtain a printingapprenticeship, so his mother suggested he trained to be a womenshairdresser. He trained and worked as a womens hairdresser for fiveyears, eventually running his own salon. After this he was seeking a go that would give him a greater opportunity and understanding ofbeing a writer. He decided to become a student, having now passed Olevel side at night classes. No local education authority wouldgive him a bursary, so he spent some time girder cleaning at Fords inorder to fund his college O & A level studies. He only did this longenough so that he could afford the course he spent no time extradoing this job as climbing up on dirty, oily girders was a verydangerous job which galore(postnominal) of his colleagues were injured on.You can see in the play that Russell is commenting on society asRussell is almost like Rita, she lives near Liverpool with littleeducation and works in a hairdresser, trying to get the opportunity tohave choice by getting an education. During the play, Russell showsthat the class system is a part of modern society and Rita wants to transform classes, from working to middle, but has little education. Shewants Equal opportunities in that the way that women are expected tohave babies and stay at home all day, but in his play Rita breaks awayfrom everyone else and gets an education and he shows in the play, howhard it really is to get an education and all the troubles thatsomeone of a lower class has to go through to achieve there goals.I think that Russell wrote this play because he had a hard time in hisown life, an d he wanted to evidence to other people that you need tohave a choice or you will begin to experience a feeling of beingtrapped in society. I think that Russell used humour in his playbecause it would make the audience watching the play understand theissues brought up. I think the play runs demote as a comedy, with thehumour aspects of the play rather than a more serious drama.