Best friends Rita and Sue get a lift home from married Bob after babysitting his kids. When he takes the scenic route and offers them a bit of fun, the three start a fling they each think they control. Read more …
Andrea Dunbar wrote her semi-autobiographical play when she was just 19. It’s an explosive portrait of girls facing an unpromising future, offered a taste of adult adventure.
One of the real virtues of this revival is that it does not go in for sermonising hindsight but lets this very good play speak for itself, Strongly recommended.
This is a play, for all its rough edges, that absolutely must be seen.
Seeming less uproarious but more political and perceptive than when it first appeared in 1982, Andrea Dunbar’s portrait of Thatcher’s Britain still chills.
After all the controversy surrounding this revival of Andrea Dunbar’s memorable play, it adds nothing that’s new.
Viewed today, the result is a time capsule that’s as much a document of social apartheid and the thrill-seeking extremes which underclass boredom on sink estates inspires as tragi-comic drama.
Out of Joint’s production of Rita, Sue, and Bob Too is fun to watch. But don’t let the humour deceive you, it’s also asking some interesting moral and political questions.
This revival may have it flaws, but this is not a writer, a setting or a story of the kind we see enough of. For getting this out there, even in the face of moralising meddlers, it has to be commended.
Watching this play in 2018 shows a stark contrast about how much has changed with attitude towards women and relationships. Should Rita, Sue and Bob Too be staged in the age of #MeToo ? Of course it should.
The stars of the show remain Taj Atwal as the increasingly guilt-ridden Rita and Gemma Dobson as the far less guilty Sue; perfectly encapsulating their heady journey from fun-seekers to lost dreams.
Brief, hilarious, angry, and blazing with honesty.
Rita, Sut and #MeToo
Theatre preview: Rita, Sue and Bob Too coming to the Citz
Adelle Stripe and Kate Wasserberg--Andrea Dunbar, Rita, Sue and Bob Too
Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow from Tuesday February 13, 2018, until Saturday February 17, 2018. More info: www.citz.co.uk