Theatre / Bristol
Review: Look Back in Anger, Alma Tavern
The 1956 audiences for John Osborne’s debut play would have seen a woman wearing a petticoat (shock) and doing the ironing in it (the horror). That ironing board would have a lot to answer for, replacing the chaise longue of the well-made play with a dingy flat, and assaulting post-war theatregoers with a new genre: the kitchen-sink drama.
Osborne spits out Jimmy Porter, pulled from working-class roots courtesy of the Education Act and Welfare State, but treading water as a market trader and getting very, very stroppy. He’s a creation that prompted the Royal Court to identify a new species: the Angry Young Man. But almost 40 years on, what can the play say to us?
Bristol-based Red Rope Theatre has made a good fit with its venue choice. The Alma Tavern Theatre plays its part as a claustrophobic space into which Osborne’s caged characters peer gloomily while we sit up close to the unfolding melodrama.
It’s a far from relaxed Sunday scene as “predatory and suspicious” Jimmy unleashes his vitriol and lassoes it around his higher-class wife Alison (Lauren Saunders) while loyal pal Cliff (Eoin Slattery, in a well-judged performance) looks on. Fresh prey arrives in the form of the arch Helena (Annette Chown, nicely conveying a mix of disgust and lust): and things can only go downhill.
Edwardian writers, the imperialist class, the H-bomb: nothing escapes Jimmy’s wrath. This is an ambitious drama to tackle, and director Matt Grinter lets the language literally do the talking.
It’s also a challenging role for any actor, with relentless, full-on monologues: and Elliot Chapman gets better scene-by-scene, most fluent when delivering visceral, vicious diatribe. It does mean that there isn’t much space to simply be angry, and the production could benefit from a little more variation in tone – but this will come as the cast grows in confidence. It certainly deserves a bigger audience. C’mon people.
Does the play have still have an impact? Its themes – rootlessness, inter-generational distrust, reactions against class and politics – are universal. Arguably, Jimmy’s worst accusation is “You don’t believe in anything”: but his own anger is useless because he’s a talker not a doer, and there are no ‘causes’ left.
Jimmy Porter has a curious nostalgia. Through him Osborne reminds us that, if you’re looking back, it’s already too late. The time to get angry is now.
Look Back in Anger is at the Alma Tavern & Theatre, Bristol until Saturday, 15 November. For more information and to book tickets, visit http://almataverntheatre.co.uk/theatre/what-s-on
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