Look Back in Anger

Arguably the most significant British drama of the twentieth century, John Osborne’s ‘Look Back in Anger’ concerns Jimmy Porter, a bitter, disaffected young working class man trapped in a dysfunctional marriage to his upper middle class wife Alison. More or less nuking the genteel upper class theatre of Rattigan and Coward from orbit via its introduction of working class rage and bitter naturalism to a landscape dominated by mannered portraits of posh people, it changed theatre (and by extension, film) for good. There’s not been a major production in this country for quarter of a century – when Michael Sheen played Jimmy at the National Theatre – and with the passage of time there have been increasing murmurings about the unpalatability of Jimmy’s misogyny. Here’s its chance to shine again in the hands of a new generation, however, as it’s paired with Arnold Wesker’s more contemplative ‘Roots’ for the Almeida’s Angry and Young rep season. Atri Banerjee directs the ensemble, with Billy Howle as Jimmy, Ellora Torchia as Alison and Morfydd Clark as Helena.