For other uses, see Look Back in Anger (disambiguation).
Look Back in Anger
Poster for 1957 production [1]
Written by
John Osborne
Characters
Jimmy Porter Alison Porter Cliff Lewis Helena Charles Colonel Redfern[2]
Date premiered
8 May 1956
Place premiered
Royal Court Theatre, London
Original language
English
Subject
British class system, marriage, misogyny
Genre
realism
Setting
A single-room flat, English Midlands, 1950s
Look Back in Anger (1956) is a realist play written by John Osborne. It focuses on the life and marital struggles of an intelligent and educated but disaffected young man of working-class origin, Jimmy Porter, and his equally competent yet impassive upper-middle-class wife Alison. The supporting characters include Cliff Lewis, an amiable Welsh lodger who attempts to keep the peace; and Helena Charles, Alison's snobbish friend.[3][4][5]
Osborne drew inspiration from his personal life and failing marriage with Pamela Lane while writing Look Back in Anger, which was his first successful outing as a playwright. The play spawned the term "angry young men" to describe Osborne and those of his generation who employed the harshness of realism in the theatre in contrast to the more escapist theatre that characterised the previous generation.[6] This harsh realism has led to Look Back in Anger being considered one of the first examples of kitchen sink drama in theatre.
The play was received favourably in the theatre community, becoming an enormous commercial success, transferring to the West End and Broadway, and even touring to Moscow. It is credited with turning Osborne from a struggling playwright into a wealthy and famous personality, and also won him the Evening Standard Drama Award as the most promising playwright of 1956. The play was adapted into a motion picture of the same name by Tony Richardson, starring Richard Burton and Mary Ure, which was released in 1959. Film production credited circa 1958.[7][8]
^V&A archive collection.[1]
^GradeSaver. "Look Back in Anger Characters". www.gradesaver.com.
^"An introduction to Look Back in Anger". The British Library.
^"Look Back in Anger Summary - eNotes.com". eNotes.
^Billington, Michael (30 March 2015). "Look Back in Anger: how John Osborne liberated theatrical language" – via www.theguardian.com.
^Prasad, G. J. V. (30 November 2017). The Lost Temper: Critical Essays on Look Back in Anger. Macmillan India Limited. ISBN 9781403909466 – via Google Books.
^Prexl, Lydia (17 June 2009). The Tragedy of Jimmy Porter: Overview of the critical opinions about "Look Back in Anger" and development of a thesis. GRIN Verlag. ISBN 9783640349319 – via Google Books.
^Denison, Patricia D. (6 December 2012). John Osborne: A Casebook. Routledge. ISBN 9781136546679 – via Google Books.
and 18 Related for: Look Back in Anger information
LookBackinAnger (1956) is a realist play written by John Osborne. It focuses on the life and marital struggles of an intelligent and educated but disaffected...
LookingBackinAnger (Chinese: 義不容情; lit. 'righteousness doesn’t permit feelings') was a 1989 Hong Kong TV series and one of the most watched TVB series...
coined by the Royal Court Theatre's press officer in order to promote Osborne's 1956 play LookBackinAnger. It is thought[by whom?] to be derived from the...
before his third produced play, LookBackinAnger (1956), brought him national fame. Osborne was born on 12 December 1929 in London, the son of Thomas Godfrey...
Company's Off-Broadway revival of John Osborne's play, LookBackinAnger, at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre...
play LookBackinAnger (1956) is thought of as the first of the genre. The gritty love-triangle of LookBackinAnger, for example, takes place in a cramped...
the 1950s, and was later a key figure in the British New Wave filmmaking movement. His films LookBackinAnger (1959), The Entertainer (1960), A Taste...
a play in which nothing much happens, but everything does." He directed a revival of LookBackinAnger for the Roundabout Theatre Company in 2012. David...
ISBN 978-1-85459-928-5 "LookBackinAnger". BBC Wiltshire. 8 February 2005. Retrieved 15 January 2019. Fisher, Mark (19 January 2005). "LookBackinAnger". The Guardian...
Porter in Sam Gold's off-Broadway 2012 revival of John Osborne's LookBackinAnger, opposite Adam Driver and Matthew Rhys, and then appeared in Amy Herzog's...
Alison Porter Off-Broadway inLookBackinAnger and, in 1984, was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Isn't it Romantic...
role of Jimmy Porter in the play LookBackinAngerin 1956 opposite Mary Ure in London's West End theatre. Haigh's performance in the role on stage was...
performances in Amadeus at the Old Vic and LookBackinAnger at the National Theatre were nominated for Olivier Awards in 1998 and 1999, respectively. In 2003...
"Wonderwall" and "Don't LookBackinAnger" charting at number two and number one respectively; the former becoming their sole top 10 hit in the US. Originally...
Global Information