LOOK BACK IN ANGER. To 19 February.
Bath
LOOK BACK IN ANGER
by John Osborne
Theatre Royal To 19 February 2005
Mon-Wed 7.30pm Thu-Sat 8pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm
Post-show discussion 17 Feb
Runs 2hr 40min One interval,
TICKETS: 01225 448844
www.theatreroyal.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 February
There have been some good Look Back's over the years; this is among the very best.This play started a theatre movement that soon left it behind. Ironically, something once derided as kitchen-sink drama' is set in a Midlands bedsit where water has to be fetched from downstairs. Designer Trevor Coe rightly crowds the room, with bed, stove, dressing-table, wardrobe, etc. everything but the kitchen sink.
At the 1956 premiere Osborne's protagonist Jimmy Porter was both reviled as an opinionated loud-mouth and hailed as spokesperson for post-war youth. David Tennant's performance admits the arrogance of someone who exalts the justice of his personal feelings.
For Richard Baron's Edinburgh Royal Lyceum production reveals Look Back as an examination of the difficulties of intense love. Social and class circumstances increase these but the easygoing joy of Jimmy's time with his wife's equally posh-sounding actress friend Helena (and his apparent enemy) contrasts the vitriolic fury he flings at Alison.
The famous pusillanimous' tirade and the attacks on her family are hurt responses to being unable to reconcile his deep feeling with his confusion in a world that's run out of big, brave causes. Tennant shows both the angry and suffering sides to Jimmy.
He's helped by Kelly Reilly's staggeringly good Alison. For once, she doesn't seem to relate everything in her life to Jimmy's emotions, matching him in looks of defiance and fully joining the games that keep reality at bay. In tone and cadence, her voice seems for ever searching an emotional resolution, matching Jimmy's more aggressive search.
Politely fragile in manner, Reilly shows the strength which enabled Alison to strike out from her smart, conventional family. She's as deeply, determinedly in love as Jimmy; they're something of the Shrew's Katherine and Petruchio people who appreciate each other as no-one else can.
Alison's affection for Cliff is on a different level. Steven McNicoll's Cliff (sometimes rather showy in following Jimmy's outer manner, but forceful when he quietly points out his friend looks for trouble) makes the point when embarrassed at, and excluded from, the canoodlings between Jimmy and Helena.
Husband and wife are both matured by experiencing a death. And though near the end Jimmy stands tall while she's bent double in agony, then crawls (literally) to him, the play ends (minimising the embarrassment potential of the bear and squirrel game) with both in a protective hug.
Good work all-round, but it's the central duo that fire this Look Back into new life.
Jimmy Porter: David Tennant
Cliff Lewis: Steven McNicoll
Alison Porter: Kelly Reilly
Helena Charles: Alexandra Moen
Colonel Redfern: Gareth Thomas
Director: Richard Baron
Designer: Trevor Coe
Lighting: Jeanine Davies
Costume: Monika Nisbet
Trumpet: Colin Steele
2005-02-16 10:14:51