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
Educating Eve language, and a learning instinct, can be affirmed; "neither" need be denied. Educating Eve Educating Eve: The 'Language Instinct' Debate is a book by Geoffrey Sampson, providing arguments against Noam Chomsky's theory of a human instinct for (first) language acquisition. Sampson explains the original title of the book as a deliberate allusion to "Educating Rita" (1980), and uses the plot of that play to illustrate his argument. Sampson's book is a response to Steven Pinker's "The Language Instinct" specifically and Chomskyan linguistic nativism broadly. The title, "Educating Eve", was dropped after the first edition because the allusion to "Educating Rita"