to add an item to your Itinerary basket.
New Stars to Lead Reading Rep’s Educating Rita
4th February 2026
Reading Rep are delighted to announce that Madelyn Smedley and Julius D’Silva will make their Reading Rep Theatre debuts as Rita and Frank in Annie Kershaw’s vivid new production of Willy Russell’s Educating Rita, running 26 February – 21 March.
Following the success of her acclaimed 2025 production of The Maids, Annie Kershaw returns to Reading Rep to direct this much-loved contemporary classic — a play that continues to resonate with audiences who value intelligent, actor-led storytelling and big ideas explored in intimate spaces.
Madelyn Smedley, known to many through the BBC’s The Traitors as well as EastEnders and Call the Midwife, brings warmth, empathy and fierce ambition to Rita, opposite stage and screen actor Julius D’Silva, whose career spans the RSC, West End and major regional theatres. Together, they bring fresh insight to a play that asks enduring questions about education, class and self-discovery.
Annie Kershaw says: “This play is life-affirming and brilliantly funny, but it also raises fascinating provocations about the choices we make in life and how class and gender affect them. I’m excited to see what audiences make of it.”
Find out more here.
