Educating Rita reprised her radio and Menier Chocolate Factory performance as Rita, and Frank was played by renowned actor Tim Pigott-Smith. Like the Willy Russell season at the Menier Chocolate Factory, the production ran in repertory alongside "Shirley Valentine" starring Meera Syal. A UK tour played in 2012, starring Claire Sweeney and Matthew Kelly as Rita and Frank respectively. A 35th anniversary production was staged at Liverpool Playhouse from 6 February to 7 March 2015, starring Leanne Best as Rita and Con O'Neill as Frank, directed by Gemma Bodinetz. The same year the Chichester Festival staged a production with Lenny Henry and
Blood Knot Blood Knot Blood Knot is an early play by South African playwright, actor, and director Athol Fugard. Its single-performance premier was in 1961 in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the playwright and Zakes Mokae playing the brothers Morris and Zachariah. Lucille Lortel produced "The Blood Knot", starring J.D. Cannon as Morris and James Earl Jones as Zachariah, at the Cricket Theatre, Off Broadway, in New York City, in 1964, "launch[ing]" Fugard's "American career." It was the first South African play performed with an interracial cast. Its Broadway premiere was at the John Golden Theatre, in 1986, with Fugard and Mokae playing