Complete Plays: Look Back In Anger (1957)

Production Details
Title:
Author:
New Play:

Venue:
Location:
Staging:
Look Back in Anger
John Osborne
No

The Library Theatre, Scarborough
Large lecture room
Round
First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
16 December 1957
16 December 1957
22 December 1957
Company Details
Director:

Stage Manager:
Assistant Stage Manager:
Rodney Wood

John Smith
Marlene Murray
Character
Jimmy Porter
Cliff Lewis
Alison Porter
Helena Charles
Colonel Redfern
Actor
Clive Goodwin
Brian Wallace
Prunella Saenger
Celia Hewitt
Rodney Wood
Why is this play significant?
After the success of its first two summer seasons in 1955 and 1956, Stephen Joseph launched Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre's first winter season in 1957 after being convinced there was enough support from the local community to successfully run a winter season without the support of tourists. Osborne's famed and challenging play, which had premiered the previous year at the Royal Court, was chosen as one of the plays to launch the first winter season. It also marked the first professional in-the-round production of the play in the UK.
Notes
○ One of the most important aims of Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre was to present new work by new writers. Whilst Look Back in Anger was - obviously - not a world premiere for the company, Stephen Joseph recognised the significance of this play, premiered at the Royal Court in 1956 and felt it was important for Scarborough audiences to see a play which had come to public attention so quickly. This was one of the earliest revivals of the play coming just 18 months after its world premiere.
○ This marked the first in-the-round performance of Osborne's play. It is worth noting that due to the lack of theatre in the round venues in the UK, the vast majority of established work performed by the company during its time at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre marked their first in-the-round performances.
○ Whilst Stephen Joseph had some respect for what Look Back In Anger achieved and represented (essentially the play which launched the ‘angry young man’ trope in theatre), he did not necessarily think it was a great play as he wrote in 1958: “[Osborne’s The Entertainer] was not a good play, but then, come to think of it, nor was Look Back In Anger a good play. It is a measure of the inadequacy of most new plays that this one was so generally acclaimed.”
○ Stephen Joseph launched the inaugural winter season in 1957, which would run until 1961 and would then not be reinstated until 1974.
○ Due to the unavailability of the Concert Room used for the summer seasons, the first winter season had to be performed in the Large Lecture Room at Scarborough Library. Due to its limited space, Stephen Joseph had to create an elongated 'round' layout. All of the winter season of 1957/58 was presented in the Large Lecture Room before the winter seasons for 1958 - 1961 returned to the Concert Room. The Large Lecture Room was also used for the 1974/75 and 1975/76 winter seasons where Alan Ayckbourn arranged a three-sided configuration for the space.
○ Look Back In Anger was presented without an interval.
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd. Image copyright: Scarborough Theatre Trust