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    Look Back in Anger
    Look Back in Anger
    Look Back in Anger
    Audiobook2 hours

    Look Back in Anger

    Written by John Osborne

    Narrated by Simon Templeman, Joanne Whalley, James Warwick and

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Jimmy Porter barely ekes out a living running a candy stall by day and playing jazz trumpet by night. Although he usually takes his frustrations out on his emotionless wife, Jimmy's scathing tongue and self-loathing seems destined to destroy everything.

    Set in the UK at the dawn of the 60’s social unrest, this savage morality tale spawned the phrase “angry young man.”

    An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring:
    Steven Brand as Cliff
    Moira Quirk as Alison
    Simon Templeman as Jimmy
    James Warwick as Colonel Redhorn
    Joanne Whalley as Helena

    Directed by Rosalind Ayres. Recorded before a live audience.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherL.A. Theatre Works
    Release dateAug 15, 2012
    ISBN9781580819152
    Look Back in Anger
    Author

    John Osborne

    John Osborne is a Lead Linux Container Architect for Red Hat with years of experience developing high-performance technologies using JBoss Middleware.

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    Reviews for Look Back in Anger

    3.5/5

    216 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      "Look Back in Anger" is play with a central focus on Jimmy Porter, a spiteful, hateful man who seems intent on destroying everything that he loves. He lives with his wife, Alison, and his best friend, Cliff. Alison and Jimmy's relationship is one of hurt and abuse, as Jimmy does everything he can, night after night, to provoke Alison into rage. Cliff, the tired mediator, generally stands by and watches, making feeble attempts to calm everyone down whenever things get especially chaotic. This is the routine that the three miserably go through, until a guest interrupts things. Helena, an old friend of Alison, comes to stay.She is horrified at Jimmy's vindictive treatment of his wife, and rises to his every insult, defending her and dealing out quite a few insults of her own.Through an outsider's eyes, Alison realizes just how much of a let down her married life has become, and decides to go away for a few days.In the first night of her absence, Jimmy and Helena, whose violent arguments have awoken a sexual desire in both of them, fall into each others arms. This play never changed scenes, and there were a total of only five characters in the entire story (one of which is only featured in a few pages). However, it is not a simple story. The characters are without a doubt the strength of it, because they are complex and well drawn. Jimmy is the prominent one, which is probable because he is characterized by mad outbursts, angry speeches, and bewildering mood swings. He reminded me a bit of Stanley in "A Streetcar Named Desire."Alison was also quite well done - the sad, timid, and abused little wife who forces herself to believe that she still loves her husband.Cliff seemed to be quite a dull man, but I couldn't help but wonder what he hid behind his blase personality. Helena was also complex. She vehemently fights against Jimmy, for the sake of Alison's honor, it seems. She advises Alison against staying with Jimmy, and seems to be the strong voice of reason. However, as soon as her friend is out the door, she is in bed with Alison's husband. Did Helena just advise Alison to leave because she wanted Jimmy for herself? I liked the character study here, but other than that, this play was nothing special. The characters made the story, but beyond that, I would find it hard to think of something that actually happened, beyond ironing boards falling onto people.Great characters, but still an average play.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Although first performed in 1956, I found a lot of contemporary connections to this infamous play.Jimmy and his wife Alison work menial jobs, hanging around on weekends with neighbor and close friend Cliff in the couple's teeny-tiny attic flat in England. The play never leaves this claustrophobic setting, and right away the audience is introduced to Jimmy's mental abuse toward his pregnant spouse (she hasn't told him), and best friend. Why does Jimmy act this way towards people he supposedly loves, and why do they seem to tolerate it? Playwright Osborne offers no answers except through the actions of the characters, and even then nothing is explained away in a revelatory way.I think part of the criticism of the play has more to do with the hatred toward Jimmy than anything. I wanted to backhand him almost immediately. He isn't a nice person, and Osborne never provides a sympathetic scene for us to come around with. It's a mystery why Alison sticks around, although she does leave the marriage at one point. These characters are spinning their wheels and wasting their lives, talking big but not following through on anything except tearing each other down. Osborne provides more than physical stage direction, he instructs the actors as to what the characters are doing and thinking, providing...I don't want to say "insight," but awareness as to what (especially) Jimmy is doing, what he's trying to accomplish through his constant berating and verbal attacks, with a couple of physical altercations thrown in for good measure.I'm glad I wasn't in this play in my acting days in college. There are many long stretches of dialogue that frankly would have been very tough to break down and memorize. Although I briefly lived in England in the early 1990's, some of the references were over my head as well. The play was turned into a film, but I've never seen it. I've heard about the play for decades, and finally read it when a copy fell out of a classics book lot I won on eBay. I give it (* * * 1/2) out of five stars.
    • 3/5
      Het verbale spervuur van Jimmy Porter is intusen legendarisch geworden. Ik geef toe, het is impressionant in zijn genre en het wordt gevoed door een onvoorstelbare frustratie; af en toe dreigt hij zo antipathiek te worden dat het bijna fysiek ondragelijk wordt, zeker omdat eerst zijn vrouw Alison en vervolgens ook haar vervangster Helena er het slachtoffer van worden. Maar Jimmy toont ook een gevoelige kant, een nood aan bijna kinderlijke tederheid en aan humaniteit, die intrigeert. Die ambigu?teit brengt het stuk wat uit evenwicht, zodat de grote verzoening aan het slot geforceerd aandoet. Look back in Anger lijkt zeker gedateerd in zijn setting, maar het bevat nog altijd voldoend vuur om te blijven boeien.
    • 4/5
      "Why don't we have a little game? Let's pretend that we're human beings, and that we're actually alive."The setting for 'Look Back in Anger' is an attic flat in a large Midland town in the mid-1950's, the home of Jimmy Porter and his wife Alison. Jimmy and Alison share their flat with Cliff Lewis, a young working-class man who as well as being Jimmy's best friend is also in business with him, running a sweet stall. Cliff and Jimmy both come from working-class backgrounds, though Jimmy has had more education than Cliff whilst Alison comes from a more prominent family, a fact that Jimmy clearly resents.'Look Back in Anger' is regarded by many as saving British theatre as it brought a realism to it, the first of what today is classed as a 'kitchen drama' it also introduced the concept of 'angry young men' struggling in dark post-War Britain.Jimmy is egotistical, a dreamer but he mainly a pretty dislikeable character. Osborne uses him as a vehicle to shine a light on many of the societal issues of the day; Religion, class, the rise and fall of the British Empire and in particular the loss of childhood. Jimmy lost his father at a young age and wants the others around him to share in his pain. The play may be a little dated today but this is still a powerful piece of writing making this book well worth a read and at roughly 100 pages long its also a quick one.
    • 5/5
      Classic tale of angry young man Jimmy Porter. Years later, I met a man named Jimmy Porter, and I couldn't help thinking about this one. When you remember a character so well, it is a sign of a great book (or play in this case.) Not sure I've ever seen this performed, but it works well on paper. And we still have our angry young men; maybe more than ever.
    • 4/5
      I was to read it for my British Literature class and I must say I really enjoyed it. It is something different with its own unique message.
    • 3/5
      Het verbale spervuur van Jimmy Porter is intusen legendarisch geworden. Ik geef toe, het is impressionant in zijn genre en het wordt gevoed door een onvoorstelbare frustratie; af en toe dreigt hij zo antipathiek te worden dat het bijna fysiek ondragelijk wordt, zeker omdat eerst zijn vrouw Alison en vervolgens ook haar vervangster Helena er het slachtoffer van worden. Maar Jimmy toont ook een gevoelige kant, een nood aan bijna kinderlijke tederheid en aan humaniteit, die intrigeert. Die ambiguïteit brengt het stuk wat uit evenwicht, zodat de grote verzoening aan het slot geforceerd aandoet. Look back in Anger lijkt zeker gedateerd in zijn setting, maar het bevat nog altijd voldoend vuur om te blijven boeien.
    • 3/5
      Look back in anger, first performed at the Royal Court theatre in 1956, is generally seen as the play that marked a turning-point in attitudes to drama - and more generally to literature - in Britain. Its central character, Jimmy Porter, was the original "angry young man" - the British equivalent of the rebel without a cause - and its setting in a squalid one-room flat gave rise to the term "kitchen sink drama." Curiously, there isn't actually a sink in the play, but a great deal of ironing gets done: it's odd nowadays to think of radical young people spending their time ironing! Interesting too, to note that although the characters are living in rather poor conditions, they certainly aren't working-class. And whilst young, they aren't teenagers either. But 1956 was a time when a lot of young people in Britain were forced to think more seriously about politics and their attitude to authority by the Suez crisis (most young men were either conscripts or reservists, and faced being called-up to fight a colonial war they didn't necessarily approve of). Jimmy's anger has to be seen against this political background, and against a tradition of deference to authority in general.Although it has its moments, this is probably a play that doesn't have much to say to a modern audience, except as a document of its time. Tellingly, there are more than 400 copies on LT, but no-one's bothered to review it yet. But it is probably something that you should read, if you're interested in the generation of British writers that came into prominence in the 50s and 60s - novelists and playwrights like Alan Sillitoe, Kingsley Amis, Stanley Middleton, Joe Orton, John Braine; poets like Philip Larkin and Dylan Thomas. This is how theatre in England broke away from endless variations on The importance of being earnest and Agatha Christie whodunnits. On the other hand, you might prefer to look at Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams...