Atri Banerjee Archives - The Play Podcast

087 – Look Back in Anger by John Osborne

by Douglas Schatz | Nov 25, 2024 | Podcast Episodes

Almeida-Theatre_Look-Back-in-Anger_Billy-Howle-and-Ellora-Torchia_Credit--Marc-Brenner-(3)

Billy Howle as Jimmy Porter
and Ellora Torchia as Alison
Look Back in Anger
Almeida Theatre, London, September 2024
Photo by Marc Brenner

087 – Look Back in Anger by John Osborne

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John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger is one of the landmark plays of twentieth century British theatre. Since its premiere at the Royal Court theatre in May 1956, it has been defined as marking a breakthrough in dramatic style and subject matter, its frank depiction of a generation of disaffected youth and its working-class setting inspiring a group of writers who would also be labelled angry young men. In the words of the writer Alan Sillitoe, in Look Back in Anger, “John Osborne didn’t just contribute to British theatre, he set off a landmine…and blew most of it up.”

In the nearly eighty years since its premiere, the seminal role of the volatile Jimmy Porter has attracted many renowned actors, including Michael Sheen, Kenneth Branagh, and David Tennant, and as we record this episode the first revival in London for twenty-five years is on stage at the Almeida theatre, directed by Atri Banerjee, and with Billy Howle playing Jimmy.

Given the iconic reputation of this play, I am very keen to explore how well it stands the test of time. Is Jimmy’s dangerous anger still relatable, or even acceptable?

I’m very glad to have not one but two experts who are well qualified to help us address this question and more. First, is Dan Rebellato, Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London, and author of 1956 and All That: The Making of Modern British Drama, which takes a forensic look at how Look Back in Anger emerged in its time. Dan has appeared on the podcast three times previously, having joined me on our very first episode on A Doll’s House, as well as on our episodes on Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea and Chekhov’s The Seagull.

My second guest is the director of the current revival of Look Back in Anger at the Almeida here in London, Atri Banerjee

Dan Rebellato

Dan Rebellato is Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London. Dan is the author of 1956 and All That: The Making of Modern British Drama, as well as a number of other books on contemporary British theatre. He is also a playwright in his own right, having written at least 19 stage plays and numerous radio plays, including most recently an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend, for BBC Radio 4.

Recommended Play

Dan recommended Boys on the Verge of Tears by Sam Grabiner.

Atri Banerjee

Atri Banerjee has previously been a member of the Almeida Theatre’s Resident Director Scheme, where he directed Name, Place, Animal, Thing (as part of Six Artists in Search of a Play). He is also a recipient of the 2022-24 Peter Hall Bursary at the National Theatre, Creative Associate at the Gate Theatre, and was previously Trainee Director at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

His other directing credits include: Julius Caesar for the RSC, The Glass Menagerie at the Royal Exchange Theatre, in Manchester, the Rose Theatre Kingston and on UK tour; and Hobson’s Choice at the Royal Exchange for which he won The Stage Debut Award for Best Director. Atri is also a Trustee of the Regional Theatre Young Directors’ Scheme.

Recommended Play

Atri recommended Faith Healer by Brian Friel – (eee Episode 043 – Faith Healer )

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112 – Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet

Jul 27, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

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David Mamet’s modern American classic, Glengarry Glen Ross, is a blistering commentary on the cut-throat reality of the American dream, and its poisonous impact on those who have bought into the myth and machismo of that dream. The play had its world premiere in the small Cottesloe theatre at the National Theatre in London in September 1983, and was first performed in New York the following year, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Mamet also wrote the extended screenplay for the star-studded 1992 film version.

As we recorded this episode a new production of the play was playing at the Old Vic theatre in London, with an all-female cast. This is a particularly provocative idea, because one of the primary themes of this play is masculine identity, and the salesmen in this Chicago office do not hold back in their display of machismo.

To explore Mamet’s unflinching slice of 1980s dog-eat-dog capitalism, I am joined by arts journalist Mark Lawson.

111 – The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht

Jul 2, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

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Bertolt Brecht’s ‘gangster spectacle’, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, is both an exuberant and funny piece of theatre, and a chillingly topical political satire. Set in the 1930s Chicago of Al Capone, Brecht presents a parody of the rise of Hitler through the character of the gangster Arturo Ui. The play is a universal cry for vigilance against the rise of unscrupulous, populist leaders who threaten democratic societies and global peace.

As we recorded this episode a new production of the play by the Royal Shakespeare Company was playing in Stratford-upon-Avon, starring Mark Gatiss as the title character.

I am delighted to be joined by both the show’s translator, playwright Stephen Sharkey, and by Brecht scholar, Professor Tom Kuhn, to guide us through Brecht’s political parody.

110 – Our Town by Thornton Wilder

Jun 12, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

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Playwright Edward Albee described Thornton Wilder’s Our Town as “the greatest American play ever written.” In fact Wilder’s quintessential portrait of rural America in a bygone time has somehow transcended its iconic American setting to become a universal meditation on mortality, community, and how we live our individual lives, wherever that may be.

The play premiered on Broadway in 1938, winning Wilder the Pulitzer Prize, and it has been a staple of school, amateur and stock performance ever since. In fact, according to critic John Lahr writing in the introduction to the text of the Penguin edition, “the play is performed somewhere in the world every day.”

Howard Sherman, author of Another Day’s Begun – Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in the 21st Century, joins me to explore this American classic.

Michael Sheen as the Stage Manager in Our Town, Welsh National Theatre, photo by Helen Murray.