Past productions

The premiere of Look Back in Anger was on the 8th May 1956 at the Royal Court Theatre in London by the English Stage Company.  Directed by Tony Richardson, there are infamous rumours of audiences gasping at the site of an ironing board on stage, yet it was still described as "the best young play of its decade"(1) by Kenneth Tyan in the Observer.
 The original cast was as follows:

Alan Bates	Cliff Lewis
Helena Hughes	Helena Charles
Kenneth Haigh	Jimmy Porter
John Welsh	Colonel Redfern
Mary Ure	Alison Porter

It then transferred to America on the 1st October, 1957, at the Lyceum Theatre in New York, and ran for 5 months. It moved to the John Golden Theatre in March 1958 where it played for a further 6 months. It racked up a total of 407 performances, and was nominated for three Tony Awards in 1958: Best Play, Best Actress (Mary Ure), and Best Costume (Motley).

Over the last 50 years, there have been many revivals of the play, being received by many audience demographics and ages, and producing different effects. 2005 saw a touring production based from the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, with David Tennant as Jimmy. Rather than finding it to be an 'old generation' play, Thelma Good saw that "Jimmy Porter's angst echoes uncomfortably in our modern souls"(2); this is something I hope to get across in the production too. The way in which something seemingly so long-past can reflect on our current lives is a powerful thing in the theatre.

The 2009 production at the Northern Stage theatre in Newcastle was seen by Alfred Hickling to be a difficult one to watch - LBiA relies fairly heavily on the context of the generation in which it was written. The angry youth, misogynistic Jimmy, and lost lives aren't quite translatable to a modern audience, Hickling decided(3). The reception of such a play is therefore difficult to gauge as some audience members will reflect upon their own lives in the mid-1950s, whilst others see it as a 'good story' of the lost generations.

In their 2011/2012 season, the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York put on LBiA directed by Sam Gold. It received mixed reviews, a New York audience struggling with the "ultra-British"(4) nature of the play, however people were still encouraged to go and see if for themselves, experiencing the ever-present anger still rife on stage.

I want to stay true to Osbourne's text in reflecting the desperation and depression of his characters, whilst not tying it to the 1950s. Therefore, the play will be in an almost 'timeless' setting, influenced slightly by the 1980s and the form of social anxiety during the miner's strikes, but remaining ambiguous enough for any and all spectators to be able to relate to it.




(1) Tyan, K. (1956) on Royal Court Theatre archive, available at: http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/look-back-in-anger/?tab=4
(2) Good, T. (2005) 'Look Back in Anger', Edinburgh Guide, 15 January, Theatre: Reviews, [online] Available at: http://www.edinburghguide.com/aande/theatre/reviews_05/l/look_back_in_anger_rtl.shtml, [accessed: 19 March 2013]
(3) Hickling, A. (2009) 'Look Back in Anger', The Guardian, 12 March, Stage: John Osbourne, [online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/mar/12/look-back-in-anger-review, [accessed: 19 March 2013]
(4) Teachout, T. (2012) 'Still Angry After All These Years', The Wall Street Journal, 3 February, Theater, [online] Available at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204652904577191591501380790.html, [accessed: 19 March 2013]