Willy Russell

William Russell (born 23 August 1947) is an English dramatist, screenwriter, composer and lyricist. His plays Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine have both been filmed, and his Blood Brothers is one of the longest-running musicals in theatrical history.

Quotes

Educating Rita (1980)

Quotations from the play are cited from the 1981 Samuel French edition.

• Frank: There, you see, an example of assonance.
  Rita: Oh, it means getting' the rhyme wrong.
  • Page 6.
• Rita: Will they sack you.
  Frank: [lying flat on the floor] The sack? God no; that would involve making a decision. Pissed is all right. To get the sack, it'd have to be rape on a grand scale; and not just with students either. [Rita gets up and moves across to look at him] That would only amount to a slight misdemeanour. For dismissal it'd have to be nothing less than buggering the bursar.
  • Pages 42–43.
• Rita: Have they sacked y'?
  Frank: Not quite.
  Rita: Well, why y' – packing your books away.
  Frank: Australia. [After a pause] Some weeks ago – made rather a night of it.
  Rita: Did y' bugger the bursar?
  Frank: Metaphorically.
  • Page 50.

Shirley Valentine (1986)

Quotations from the play are cited from the 1989 Samuel French edition.

• She divorced her husband, y' know. I never knew him, it was before I met Jane. Apparently she came back from work one mornin' an' found her husband in bed with the milkman. With the milkman, honest to God. Well, apparently, from that day forward Jane was a feminist. An' I've noticed, she never takes milk in her tea.
  • Shirley, page 13.
• Marriage is like the Middle East, isn't it? There's no solution.
  • Shirley, page 14.
• I'm not sayin' she's a bragger, but if you've been to Paradise, she's got a season ticket.
  • Shirley, page 37.
• Well, I flung the window open an' I shouted, "Yes, that's right Millandra – I'm goin' to Greece for the sex; sex for breakfast, sex for dinner, sex for tea, an’ sex for supper." Well, she just ignored me but this little cab driver leans out an' pipes up, "That sounds like a marvellous diet, love." "It is," I shouted back, "have y' never heard of it? It's called the 'F' Plan."
  • Shirley, page 40.

External links

• Willy Russell at the Internet Broadway Database