OFF-BROADWAY REVIEW
CHATTY
YOUNG MAN Reviewed by Ron S. Covar When a theater company, which was on the brink
of bankruptcy, decided to gamble its last card on John Osborne’s debut play, Look Back in Anger, the company’s press
manager expressed that he did not like the play, and he feared that it would be
impossible to market. He even coined the term angry young man, in reference to the gritty realism and violence
depicted in Osborne’s play which was probably rejected more number of times
than the seventeen days it took Osborne to write it. During the play’s London
opening night, most critics agreed that it was a failure. Laurence Olivier said
that it was “bad theater”. How could a play recover from such a scathing remark
from a theater legend? An old-fashioned drama based on Osborne’s stormy
relationship with his unfaithful first wife, Look Back in Anger has a very colorful history. Academy
award-winning director, Tony Richardson and Academy award nominee, Mary Ure,
were star witnesses to this controversial play’s amazing journey from its disastrous
London stage premiere in 1956 to its Tony-nominated Broadway debut, all the way
to its production into a BAFTA-nominated film. Tony Richardson directed and
Mary Ure (who later became Osborne’s second wife) starred, in all three
incarnations of Osborne’s play. This seminal play, which was written in
standard three acts, was later adapted into film a few more times. After exactly 54 years, 5 months and 5 days or
nearly 55 years from the first time London’s Royal Theater Court hesitantly raised
the curtain for Look Back in Anger, New
York’s The Seeing Place once again raised the curtain for John Osborne’s play on
October 13, 2010. For two and a half weeks, The Seeing Place @ ATA’s Sargent Theater offers New York theater
audience an opportunity to discover how this kitchen sink drama miraculously bounced
back from bad theater to one of theater’s most revolutionary and influential plays.
Set entirely at the Porter home, the play opens on
a lazy Sunday evening with the three principal characters in absolute silence
for several minutes. Jimmy Porter (Brandon Walker) and his friend, Cliff (Adam
Reich), are busy with the newspaper while Jimmy’s wife, Alison (Anna Marie Sell),
irons Jimmy’s clothes. So much fuss has been made about this opening scene during
its London premiere because it was the first time that theater audience saw an
ironing board onstage. This innocuous household item has come to symbolize the
play’s brutal depiction of reality. From the beginning, it is clear to the audience
that these people are not their typical next-door neighbors. The strange
dynamics among these three characters, who seem to flirt with one another in
all possible combinations, immediately grab the audience’s attention. With such
blatant display of amorous feelings toward each other, one cannot be faulted
for getting ready to abandon the Jimmy-Alison union to make way for a
Jimmy-Cliff or a Cliff-Alison or even a Jimmy-Alison-Cliff coupling before the
night is over. Otherwise, what does one make of those moments when Jimmy and
Cliff sing, dance, hug and flirt with each other like drunken lovers? Or when
Cliff nibbles Jimmy’s ankle, then kisses Jimmy’s foot? Or when Jimmy tells
Cliff that he (Cliff) is worth half a dozen Helenas (Alison’s friend) to him
(Jimmy)? Or when Cliff sucks Alison fingers so passionately? Or when Cliff hugs
and kisses Alison in front of her husband, Jimmy? However, persistent images of
possible ménage-a-trois, homoeroticism or such other peculiarities turn out to
be pure red herrings as Osborne had been leading the audience towards a
different path all along. In the beginning of the play, nothing seems to
be happening as Jimmy and Cliff horse around between Jimmy’s incessant chatter.
This is briefly interrupted only after thirty minutes when Alison’s wrist gets
accidentally hit by the hot flat iron. After this, Jimmy launches again his nonstop
chatter. The real story does not start until one hour
into the play, when Alison announces that her friend Helena, whom Jimmy hates,
is coming to stay temporarily at the Porter home. This is what really stirs the
Porters’ nest. While three is always believed to be a crowd and the most unstable
number, this is not so in the Porter home where four turns out to be the shaky
one. The arrival of the fourth character, Helena (Adrian Wyatt), in the play’s
second act disturbs the peace in the Kowalski, er, Porter household, sending
Stanley, er, Jimmy in a fit of rage (though not for long). It is only at this
point that the play really begins. Everything before this is mere exposition
and character development. And there’s
too much of them. This play is saddled with too much talk but short on action. To
say that Jimmy talks a lot is an understatement. The entire cast delivers fine performances
although their faux British accent occasionally gets in the way. Brandon Walker is good when he is bad as he
manages to be extremely annoying and offensive. The charming Adam Reich is
convincing as Cliff, and he is effective as the perfect foil to Jimmy. Reich
also succeeds in being the play’s only likeable character as he manifests
genuine concern for both Jimmy and Alison. Although Alison is the punching bag
here, it is difficult to fully sympathize and care for her because she seems to
get a kick out of getting kicked at. Nonetheless, Anna Marie Sell gives a
moving performance as Alison. Rick Delaney’s believable performance as Alison’s
caring father, Colonel Redfern, definitely makes a mark despite his brief
appearance. Stepping in as Helena at the last minute, Adrian Wyatt does an
impressive job. However, Wyatt’s occasional glances at her book somehow still spoil
the suspension of disbelief, particularly during the crucial scenes in the last
act. As a side note, the former sister-in-law of Look Back in Anger’s original director (Tony Richardson), Lynn
Redgrave, marvelously accomplished the same feat while reading the entire
script of her swan song, Nightingale,
at the Manhattan Theatre Club last year. Lillian Wright’s realistic stage design easily
transports the audience to the 50s with objects reminiscent of the period such
as the vintage radio, clothes drawer, wooden cabinet, etc. Stephanie Pope’s costume design, especially
the women’s dresses and accessories, are also evocative of the period. However, the music seems to have been
arbitrarily and randomly placed. It is a relief though that music is not exploited
to induce tears during one of those dramatic moments towards the play’s Hollywood-inspired
conclusion. Director Reesa Graham’s staging seems to lack
that Osborne bite although she infuses some nice touches, particularly in the
opening scene when Alison is seen ironing clothes while wearing an extra large
maroon shirt. Alison’s oversized shirt seems to declare that, with her social
and economic status, this kind of life is way too big for her. Indeed, being
Jimmy’s husband does not suit Alison’s upbringing. Later, when the same shirt
fits Helena perfectly, the opposite statement is effectively conveyed. Osborne has undoubtedly created some complex and
interesting characters, particularly rough Jimmy with his belated apparent
change of heart, and tough Alison with her circular character arc. In several scenes, strains of music are heard
as Jimmy plays his saxophone offstage, and it may appear at first that Jimmy is
just playing a random piece of music. The music that Jimmy plays, Die Moritat von Mackie Messer a.k.a. The Ballad of Mac the Knife, is borrowed
from Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Opera
which actually mirrors the plot of Osborne’s play. In Threepenny Opera, Polly’s father detests her marriage to Macheath
in the same way that Alison’s father does not approve of her marriage to Jimmy.
This is perhaps not the only literary inspiration for this play as there is
also a vague allusion to Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire when Jimmy complements Cliff for looking
like Marlon Brando in his undershirt. In terms of shock value which accompanied its
initial London staging, Osborne’s Look
Back in Anger has undeniably lost its steam and impact for today’s generation
of theatre audience who have short attention span and who have been reared in
music videos and reality television. For today’s audience, nothing is sacred
and shocking anymore. Things which were considered radical and shocking during
Osborne’s time are commonplace these days. However, Osborne’s play may have indeed been groundbreaking
in the 50s for its influence in bringing to the stage those disturbing moments
of dreadful violence and authentic realism in contrast to the escapist comedies
and musicals that theater audience have been accustomed to seeing until
Osborne’s chatty young man angrily hit the stage and never looked back. 
LOOK BACK IN ANGER REVIEW
Reviewed by Ron S. Covar
Published 2010-10-19
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