Stags and Hens Stags and Hens Stags and Hens is a play written by Willy Russell. Like most of Willy Russell's work, the play discusses working class society in England in the 1970s. It makes comments about the working class' intellect, life, party habits and the exclusion of the different. It was originally written in 1978 for television and drama students of the then-Manchester Polytechnic, as an in-house television production. It was first published as a script in 1986 in a collection with Educating Rita and Blood Brothers. Russell adapted it for performance in 2008 as 'Stags and Hens - The Remix' at
The Ecstasy of Rita Joe Ryga and... Bloomfield have accomplished their purpose." Jamie Portman of the "Vancouver Province" wrote of the revival in 1976: "...the play still worked. Rita Joe was a landmark in more ways than one. It was - and remains - a play for all seasons and for all peoples." The "Washington Post" was positive, but Julius Novick, of "The New York Times" wrote, "'Canadian Playwright.' The words seem a little incongrous together, like 'Panamanian hockey-player,' almost, or 'Lebanese fur-trapper.'" The Ecstasy of Rita Joe The Ecstasy of Rita Joe is a drama by George Ryga. The play, in two acts, premiered