Disenfranchised youth, a dangerously divided society and existential threats to humanity: Look Back in Anger seems ripe for a revival – with environmental catastrophe eclipsing the original’s cold war fears of the atomic bomb. Last performed in London 25 years ago, John Osborne’s groundbreaking 1956 play is now on at London’s Almeida theatre as part of a new season entitled Angry and Young. With his play of working‑class rage, Osborne “set off a landmine” under British theatre – as the novelist Alan Sillitoe put it – giving rise to kitchen-sink dramas and TV soaps. We have Osborne to thank for EastEnders. But the play’s legacy is more problematic.
Written in 17 days in a deckchair on Morecambe pier when Osborne was a 26-year-old struggling actor, Look Back in Anger was an autobiographical account of the breakdown of his marriage to the actor Pamela Lane (whom he left for Mary Ure, the star of Anger, a few years later). Now an anthem of class warfare (Oasis didn’t borrow the title for nothing), it should not be forgotten that the play’s battleground is an abusive marriage – it is British theatre’s A Streetcar Named Desire.
