A Tribute to Look Back in Anger - Royal Court
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
AS PART of its 50th anniversary celebrations, the Royal Court Theatre is presenting a tribute to John Osborne’s classic play, Look Back in Anger.
It will take place on Monday, May 8, 2006 – 50 years to the day after Look Back in Anger received its world premiere at the then two-month-old Royal Court under the English Stage Company – and will include extracts from the play itself.
Look Back in Anger has been credited with changing the face of British post-war theatre by focusing on the warts-and-all dramas of everyday life.
Moreover, it introduced audiences to the “angry young man” – the play’s articulate working class hero Jimmy Porter. But it was an epithet that soon became attached to Osborne himself.
So what exactly is Look Back in Anger all about? Jimmy lives in an urban bedsit with his upper crust wife, Alison, and his best friend, Cliff. But sexual tensions rise as the frustrations of daily life, plus a dead-end job, mount.
The Royal Court’s tribute will star David Tennant as Jimmy Porter, a role he played last year in Edinburgh and Bath. He is, of course, easily recognized from his TV roles in Dr Who and Casanova.
Also taking part will be Ann-Marie Duff (Days of Wine and Roses, The Daughter in Law, Collected Stories and TV’s Shameless) as Alison; and Helen McCrory (As You Like It, Old Times, Five Gold Rings and Platonov) as Alison’s best friend Helena.
Preceeding A Tribute to Look Back in Anger, David Hare will read his polemical tribute I Have A Go, Lady, I Have A Go.
This coming Wednesday (May 3, 2006), the Royal Court is presenting a one-off performance of The Rocky Horror Show. Read more