Theatre: Looking back from miles away

Look Back in Anger was a searing endictment of Britain and British theatre when it was first staged the 1950s. It is still significant, if dated, today, says Colin Murphy

Look Back in an Anger is a lumbering colossus of a play, sorely dated. It defined a generation and reinvented British theatre. It moved British drama from the drawing room to the kitchen sink, and in the process gave it life again. It made writer John Osborne and saved the nascent English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre.
It did all this on the strength of one quality: seething discontent. Given eloquent voice in the character of Jimmy Porter, the play is a rage against inadequacy and disappointment.

Jimmy is not a working-class hero, but an existential one. His anger is not targeted (though it flails around, striking those nearest) and is not directed towards any positive action. Jimmy is angry because anger is the only possible authentic response to lies of social convention; he is angry because he is an individualist; he is angry because he is honest, and society isn't.

This quality is timeless, and is what set Osborne's play apart and makes it worth seeing today. Yet much else about the play is cumbersome and dated.
Dublin company Serendipity have given Look Back in Anger a faithful, period production at the Andrew's Lane studio. It is an ambitious staging decision, and seems to have been rewarded by healthy audiences (a sell-out on Saturday). When a play is this significant, it's worth seeing despite its flaws – and even despite flaws in the production. And the flaws are marked.

It is over-long and marred by improbable monologues. It is laden with very specific references to then-contemporary Britain. The company has staged it in British accents – almost always a mistake, as accents invariably lumber actors with a technical distraction from the sense of the dialogue, inhibiting the emotional momentum of the play. Whether or not this is the cause, the acting here is inhibited. Only Dafydd O'Shea, as Jimmy Porter's affable sidekick, Cliff, appears truly comfortable on stage.
Joseph Paul Travers gives a striking and energetic performance as Jimmy Porter: he is a very angry young man, no doubt about that. But his anger often seems bizarre and eccentric; and it is hugely self-indulgent. Superficially, these may be characteristics of the writing, but the challenge to the director and cast is to find a context and rationale for the characters' motivations that makes apparently bizarre dialogue seem grounded and credible.

This production, directed by Paul Brennan, never overcomes those obstacles. It appears to be a very literal reading of the play: overwhelmed by the volume, detail and ferocity of the script, they have contented themselves with mastering the lines and staging, and have failed to penetrate the play's emotional core.

Opening night reviews of Look Back in Anger in 1956 were poor; the Evening Standard found it “a self-pitying snivel”. But its fortunes turned when the Sunday reviews came out. Kenneth Tynan wrote in the Observer, “I could not love anyone who did not wish to see Look Back in Anger.”

For a theatre critic, this is intriguing: the play falls victim to many of the foibles that bedevil young playwrights all the time. Yet it was a searing indictment of both the state of British theatre and the state of Britain at the time, and Tynan and other critics recognised that its anger was vital. That's a healthy reminder that there is more to new writing than simply craft, and that passion and relevance can make a flawed play necessary. How many of us critics will recognise the next Irish voice of a generation?

Look Back in Anger, presented by Serendipity Productions. Andrew's Lane Studio, Dublin 2 until 27 January