Look Back In Anger is set in Britain in the 1950s and centres on Jimmy Porter. He encapsulates the frustrations of a dilapidated nation recovering from two world wars. It's a generation bored and frustrated, enduring rationing, hardship and a crushing sense of inertia.

Bill Ward attacks the role of Jimmy with enough energy to power a small town - complete with foot stamps, thigh-slaps and bulging jugular. Wordier passages, dense with wild associative thoughts, sometimes have the full stops steamrollered in an effort to maintain this driving energy. It's a testament to the superfluity of playwright John Osborne (1929–1994)'s writing in parts, that it mostly doesn't matter, so long as the sense of rage is carried through and contrasts with the quieter, more reflective moments. Nia Gwynne plays Alison, Jimmy's wife, in a delicate and crisp performance. Laura Howard captures the conflict inside Alison's prim and genteel best friend Helena Charles. Cliff (Rob Storr) is the lodger. Alison's father Colonel Redfearn is played by Robert East. Soutra Gilmour's set is a picture of claustrophobic drabness, and successfully aids a strong cast in generating an oppressive sense of confinement.

The play was written in 1956 and shocked with its realism. The difficulty 50 years on is that the world the characters inhabit, the source from which Jimmy Porter draws to fuel his anger, is as remote as a different continent. Jimmy's tireless tirades evoke at best a keen curiosity for what once was, rather than the heart-stopping empathy or repulsion which they may have provoked at its time. The production could have done little else to improve a play that does, unfortunately, feel as if it's seen its day.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Robert East - Colonel Redfearn. Nia Gwynne - Alison Porter. Laura Howard - Helena Charles. Rob Storr - Cliff. Bill Ward - Jimmy Porter.

Company Credits: Writer - John Osborne (1929–1994). Director - Erica Whyman. Designer - Soutra Gilmour. Lighting Designer - Charles Balfour. Sound Designer - uncredited. Musical Composer - Leif Jordansson. Fight Director - Paul Benzing. Technical Operator - uncredited. Assistant Director - Oliver Baird. Producer - uncredited. Company - Northern Stage. Lawrence Batley Theatre: Press - Suzanne Wynne. Marketing Manager - Graham Whitehead.

END

(c) Jonathan McPherson 2009

reviewed Friday 3 April 09 / Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, UK

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com