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Review: Look Back In Anger / Roots (Almeida Theatre)

Review by Dan Sinclair


⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


I am an absolute nerd for 1950s British Theatre, I love it. Shelagh Delaney and Edward Bond are two of the best (in my humble opinion, but look it’s my review it’s all just my humble opinions), but one play has always loomed large over the period - Look Back in Anger by John Osborne. In the row in front of me, a man leaned over to his friend and stated - ‘yes you see, it is a very… very important play.’ And the more I’m told that, the more I believe it. Truth be told, I’d never been a fan of the play. Played traditionally, it can be long, sexist, patronising and infuriating for all the wrong reasons (of course, just in my humble opinion).



The Almeida has gained a reputation for their stripped-back brick wall interpretations of the classics, whether that be the huge commercial success of 2023’s A Streetcar Named Desire, 2019’s Three Sisters or their upcoming star-studded Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. With a string of successful revivals in their bank, the Almeida Theatre has brought the classic play back to life in a double bill alongside Arnold Wesker’s Roots as a part of their Angry and Young season. 


Alison and her husband Jimmy share a squalid flat with their friend Cliff: they’re generationally wealthy, financially broke and emotionally bankrupt. Jimmy spends his days screaming at the world, infuriated that his peers don’t share his philosophical views - or that they don’t even care enough to have any views at all. Alison confides in their flatmate Cliff, as does Jimmy, and although often violent, everything seems to work just nicely. Until it doesn’t.



In 1956, Jimmy Porter stood as the voice of a generation, full of anger, longing and anarchy. He is somewhat of a stand-in for Osborne himself, with the wider play being based on his own failing marriage to Pamela Lane. He goes off on mad tirades, lampooning the middle class, the young and pretty much every woman who dares to walk the planet. Many big names in theatre try to analyse their way out of it, but Jimmy Porter is a raging misogynist, and a quick google of John Osborne’s personal life will show that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Whilst the original production intended to whip up the youth into a frenzy of political action, Atri Banerjee’s Look Back in Anger stirs up a whole new anger, and it is solely directed at Jimmy Porter.


Under Banerjee’s direction, Billy Howle’s performance of Jimmy Porter strips him of all the misunderstood voice of a generation grandiose he once had and instead shows him as the abusive loser he is. During a particularly haunting speech from Alison (with a heartbreaking performance from Ellora Torchia) Porter practices his trumpet in the background and it becomes a haunting rendition of Autumn Leaves. We are told throughout that he used to play in many a great jazz band, but as soon as the romantic goggles come down, we hear that he is a completely atrocious musician. But if you’re told he’s a genius over and over again, it can be easy to believe it. 



Misery loves company, and this staging highlights the fact that Jimmy will find anyone he can grab ahold of, and in the end he finds Alison, and she is at last dragged down to hell alongside him. Ultimately, this production does an excellent job of reevaluating and refocusing this flawed ‘British classic’. Look Back in Anger is the loud and entitled older brother, widely considered the golden child and can do no wrong in anyones eyes. Roots, on the other hand, is the subtler and more intelligent younger sister, who doesn’t feel the need to shout about how it changed theatre forever.


I have to admit that I knew absolutely nothing of Roots before going in, compared to the dark and oppressive opening set of the first show, this one is bright, spacious  and there are bunches of flowers and wreathes dotted around the stage. Roots centres around 22-year-old Beatie Bryant’s return to her Norfolk family home. She’s spent a while in London with her new liberal boyfriend Ronnie and now comes back to her working-class family with ideas of socialism, classical music and abstract art. Ronnie is coming to visit the Bryant clan, so preparations are put in place to throw him a welcome party, but rumbling underneath we find union clashes, family disagreements and a daughter who feels that she has completely outgrown her family.



Sharing a company of 9 actors between both shows, every performance is pitch-perfect. At the centre of Roots is Morfydd Clark as the runaway child Beatie, she is full of childhood wonder and curiosity, bounding and dancing across the stage. It’s a beautiful story that touched me personally. Even in Beatie’s final speech riling at the dumping of atom bombs and ‘third rate’ culture (if such a thing even exists) onto the working class, she is shadowed by her family sitting around the table enjoying the time they have together.


Knowing of Wesker’s political aims, the original production sought to energise a rural working-class audience (for context, I am a rural working-class theatre reviewer) into change. Diyan Zora’s direction highlights this, whilst also reflecting the complex and condescending manner this can take. Whilst I am besotted with the piece, it was let down by a handful of shaky accents that. at moments, would have you believe that Norfolk is to be found in Australia.



If you have the time and money to see both Look Back in Anger and Roots (I’d suggest in that order), then do it. It’s a titanic double bill that draws out the worst in Look Back in Anger and the very best in Roots. It is a complete gem of a rural play with a captivating central performance from Morfydd Clark that deserves a transfer beyond the Almeida, although I fear that sadly its older brother with a spot of star casting would be more appealing to producers.


Look Back in Anger and Roots are playing in rep at the Almeida Theatre until 23rd November.



Photos by Marc Brenner

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