''

Rehearsal photos

Look Back in Anger

by John Osborne

''

University educated sweet-stall owner, Jimmy Porter, and his middle-class wife, Alison, are holed up in a dingy bedsit with their friend Cliff. With the marriage at crisis point, their self-styled nuthouse echoes to the sounds of chaos, until Alison's actress friend, Helena, arrives.

Changing the face of British theatre when it was released nearly fifty years ago, the questions it raises about Britain's identity still ring alarm bells.

''

About the play

Welcome to our touring production of "Look Back in Anger". The production has been the fruition of many months' work and we would like to thank everyone involved for their tireless effort. It has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions producing this play and I hope you all enjoy it as much as we have.

"Look Back in Anger" shocked and irritated a great many people. Others were enthusiastic and threw their hats in the air. Some said it was boring living in a world without morality, others that its sense of morality was overwhelming. Your response to it will depend on the kind of person you are; but, above all, it is a play about people. If a play doesn't deal with recognizable human beings it is nothing and has no place on any stage. You must work out the social, moral and political implications for yourself.

People who believe that the setting of "Look Back in Anger" is unutterably squalid are simply unaware of the facts of life; that there is a housing shortage, that a great many houses are not only old, dirty and hideous but are unaware of the ugliness of their own surroundings, ugliness they have helped to create themselves. And when you are young and neither the house nor the furniture is your own, there is not a great deal of incentive to improve things. One simply waits to get out. The Porters are waiting to get out even if they don't even know where they are going.

We hope you enjoy the show!

''

Who is John Osborne?

Born on December 12, 1929, in London, John Osborne would eventually change the face of British theatre. His father, an advertising copywriter, died in 1941, leaving Osborne an insurance settlement which he used to finance a boarding school education at Belmont College in Devon. Still heartbroken, however, over his father's death, Osborne could not focus on his studies and left after striking the headmaster.

He returned to London and lived briefly with his mother, a barmaid. He became involved in the theatre when he took a job tutoring a touring company of young actors. Osborne went on to serve as actor-manager for a string of repertory companies and soon decided to try his hand at playwriting. When George Devine placed a notice in The Stage in 1956, Osborne decided to submit one of his plays, Look Back in Anger. Not only was his play produced, but it is considered by many critics to be the turning point in post-war British theatre. Osborne's protagonist, Jimmy Porter, captured the angry and rebellious nature of the post-war generation, a dispossessed lot who were clearly unhappy with things as they were in the decades following World War II. Jimmy Porter came to represent an entire generation of "angry young men."

Although he produced a number of hits including Luthor (1961), a play about the leader of the Reformation, and Inadmissible Evidence (1965), the study of a frustrated solicitor at a law firm, he also produced a string of unimportant works. Critics began to accuse him of not fulfilling his early potential, and audiences no longer seemed affected by Osborne's rage. Recognizing this, Osborne described himself in his last play as "a churling, grating note, a spokesman for no one but myself, with deadening effect, cruelly abusive, unable to be coherent about my despair."

Osborne died as a result of complications from Diabetes on December 24, 1994, in Shropshire, England. He left behind a large body of works for the stage as well as several autobiographical works. Several of his plays were also adapted for film including Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer. In 1963, Osborne won an Academy Award for his screenplay for Tom Jones.

''

Director's thoughts

This play is one of the most intelligent, thorough, perceptive pieces of work I have ever dealt with. The intense moral issues and dilemmas are beautifully crafted by John Osborne. University-educated, sweet-stall owner, Jimmy Porter and his middle class wife, Alison, are holed up in a dingy bedsit with their friend, Cliff. With the marriage at crisis point, their self-styled nut-house echoes to the sounds of chaos, until Alison's actress friend Helena arrives. Changing the face of British theatre when it was released nearly fifty years ago, the questions it raises about Britain's identity still ring alarm bells. The dialectic is sublime and intoxicating; Jimmy Porter is a prophet.

The production team has worked with courage and determination without whom none of this would be possible, and I glow with pride. My greatest praise, though, must be reserved for my cast; these talented, exciting and dangerous actors have been a delight; brave and unflinching, illuminating this dark play. My love and thanks go out to them all.

On a political level this show deals with the passing of age, an end of an empire, a stagnant class structure and the widening of the education franchise with society playing catch up with the new intelligence. This is the birth of a new age - an American age. Jimmy is a pioneer of freedom and enlightened thought, creating a new secular church that meets on a Sunday in an attic. But at the same time, reinforces fundamental values of a tolerant society, right and wrong and the sanctity of marriage; a strange echo from another time that might hold forgotten truths for today's lost and troubled generations. In this intimate setting we learn the value of life and the cost of the struggle, as Jimmy says "Everyone is afraid of the pain of being alive".

''

Thanks to:

Trudy & Dave at the Winston Churchill Hall
The Guide Society for the use of the Guide Hut, Ruislip
Mr & Mrs Iggulden for digs in London