Wednesday to Saturday, 9 p.m.

*** The tale of a young working-class woman from Liverpool who wants to better herself through an Open University degree was curiously dated even when it was a hit film of the 80s.

But that doesn't detract from the skill of Richard Fell, university lecturer Frank Fairchild, and Helen Coffey as Rita, in making their respective roles come to life.

The pair faced a particularly difficult task because many in the audience will have seen Michael Caine as Frank and Julie Walters as Rita in the film version of Willy Russell's work.

The play opens in Fairchild's dusty study in a redbrick university in the North of England.

Fairchild, a self-pitying drunk and minor poet who hasn't wielded his pen in earnest for years, has the cobwebs blown away after Rita bursts into his life with a burning desire to learn.

And Mr. Fell -- who looks back in languor rather than in anger -- turns in a convincing performance as middle-class cynic Fairchild who doesn't value his achievements and finds difficulty in seeing why anyone else should want to emulate them.

His arch and drawled delivery is actually more convincing than Michael Caine's, who never quite escaped his image as a Cockney wide boy and didn't seem right in the role at all.

And Helen Coffey -- who hails originally from Lancashire, a stone's throw from Rita's Merseyside roots -- shines as brightly as her brassy blonde bob under the lights.

The relationship between the two is delicately balanced as Rita's uncomplicated approach to life and her chosen subject of literature captures the mind, and the heart, of jaded Fairchild.

But as Rita gains in confidence and her life opens up, he feels like Mary Shelley -- one of the literary allusions he is fond of.

For Mary Shelley created Frankenstein, the man-made man who eventually turns on his creator.

Frank's jealousy as Rita's social circle widens is nicely handled by Fell, part anxious father and part jealous boyfriend, even though their rather odd love affair never gets beyond the platonic.

But ultimately -- and not a fault of the players -- I think the work fails because Russell's play pulls off the difficult feat of patronising both women and men, as well as the working classes and the middle classes.

And he does it with a host of rather coarse cliches which were outdated even in the 70s. Indeed, they were probably outdated within a decade of the last Labour Party landslide in the UK -- in 1945.

But in its favour, the costumes, set design and even the hairstyles capture the period perfectly.

Rita's change from tarty leather mini-skirt to Afghan-style student in flowing black is neatly handled. And Fell wears his academic uniform of tweed jacket, complete with leather patches on the elbows, with aplomb.

Ian Record's set design also captures perfectly the scruffy, dusty ambience of provincial university life, which is encapsulated in the single set, Fairchild's office.

It's just a pity all that work is wasted on what is really not a very good play at all.

Raymond Hainey