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
Educating Rita relationships. The play borrows from the George Bernard Shaw play "Pygmalion", itself based upon archetypes from Greek myth. The play was adapted by Russell for a 1983 film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters, directed by Lewis Gilbert. The play was adapted by Russell for radio in 2009 – see "Educating Rita (radio play)". It starred Bill Nighy and Laura Dos Santos directed by Kirsty Williams, and was a 90-minute play broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Boxing Day 2009. From June–July 2001, the Williamstown Theatre Festival mounted a production of Educating Rita at the Nikos Stage starring Jacqueline McKenzie