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John Osborne (1) (1929–1994)

Autor(a) de Look Back in Anger

Para outros autores com o nome John Osborne, ver a página de desambiguação.

47+ Works 2,603 Membros 37 Críticas 1 Favorited

About the Author

John Osborne was born on December 12, 1929 in London, England. He was educated at Belmont College, Devon but was expelled after attacking the headmaster. He became involved in theatre, as a stage manager and then as an actor. He started writing plays and two of them, The Devil Inside Her and mostrar mais Personal Enemy, were staged in regional theatres before he submitted Look Back in Anger to the newly formed English Stage Company at London's Royal Court Theatre. The company chose the play as the third production to enter repertory. The play became a commercial success, transferring to the West End and to Broadway, and was later filmed with Richard Burton in the leading role. His other plays included The Entertainer, Luther, Inadmissible Evidence, A Patriot for Me, A Hotel in Amsterdam, A Sense of Detachment, and Deja Vu. He also wrote a number of screenplays, mainly adaptations of his own works. He won an Oscar for his 1963 adaptation of Tom Jones. He acted in a few films including Get Carter, Tomorrow Never Comes, and Flash Gordon. He also wrote two autobiographies entitled A Better Class of Person and Almost a Gentleman. He died from complications brought on from his diabetes on December 24, 1994 at the age of 65. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos

Séries

Obras por John Osborne

Look Back in Anger (1956) 1,339 exemplares
Luther (1697) 286 exemplares
The Entertainer (1900) 200 exemplares
Britain (1961) 119 exemplares
Inadmissible Evidence (1965) 88 exemplares
Tom Jones [1963 film] (1963) — Screenwriter — 63 exemplares
The Picture of Dorian Gray: A Moral Entertainment (1973) — Autor — 32 exemplares
Epitaph for George Dillon (1958) 28 exemplares
The Entertainer [1960 film] (1960) — Screenwriter — 26 exemplares
A patriot for me (1965) 25 exemplares
Dejavu (1991) 20 exemplares
Three Plays (1957) 19 exemplares
Teatro 19 exemplares
West of Suez (1793) 12 exemplares
Tom Jones, a film script (1964) 11 exemplares
Plays for England (1963) 11 exemplares
Damn You England: Collected Prose (1994) 10 exemplares
The world of Paul Slickey (1959) 9 exemplares
Time Present (1968) 8 exemplares
Watch it Come Down (1975) 7 exemplares
The Hotel in Amsterdam (1973) 7 exemplares
A sense of detachment (1973) 6 exemplares
A Bond Honoured (1966) 5 exemplares
You're Not Watching Me Mummy (1978) 4 exemplares
Osborne John 1 exemplar
Very like a whale (1971) 1 exemplar

Associated Works

New English Dramatists 2 — Contribuidor — 14 exemplares
Look Back in Anger [1959 film] (1959) — Original play — 14 exemplares
Look Back in Anger [2005 film] (2005) — Original play — 6 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome legal
Osborne, John James
Data de nascimento
1929-12-12
Data de falecimento
1994-12-24
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
UK
Local de nascimento
Fulham, London, England, UK
Local de falecimento
Clun, Shropshire, England, UK
Ocupações
playwright
Relações
Gilliatt, Penelope (wife | divorced)

Membros

Críticas

2022 movie #201. 1960. Archie Rice is a British song and dance man who refuses to accept that his mediocre career is over. Olivier, who mainly played parts like Hamlet prior to this is almost frightening as the increasingly desperate Archie ruins his family in a comeback try.
 
Assinalado
capewood | Dec 10, 2022 |
"Why don't we have a little game? Let's pretend that we're human beings, and that we're actually alive."

The setting for 'Look Back in Anger' is an attic flat in a large Midland town in the mid-1950's, the home of Jimmy Porter and his wife Alison. Jimmy and Alison share their flat with Cliff Lewis, a young working-class man who as well as being Jimmy's best friend is also in business with him, running a sweet stall. Cliff and Jimmy both come from working-class backgrounds, though Jimmy has had more education than Cliff whilst Alison comes from a more prominent family, a fact that Jimmy clearly resents.

'Look Back in Anger' is regarded by many as saving British theatre as it brought a realism to it, the first of what today is classed as a 'kitchen drama' it also introduced the concept of 'angry young men' struggling in dark post-War Britain.

Jimmy is egotistical, a dreamer but he mainly a pretty dislikeable character. Osborne uses him as a vehicle to shine a light on many of the societal issues of the day; Religion, class, the rise and fall of the British Empire and in particular the loss of childhood. Jimmy lost his father at a young age and wants the others around him to share in his pain.

The play may be a little dated today but this is still a powerful piece of writing making this book well worth a read and at roughly 100 pages long its also a quick one.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
PilgrimJess | 13 outras críticas | Dec 31, 2021 |
Squalid, sketchy, melodramatic, charmless, misanthropic, abrasive, abusive, self-pitying… all but undeserving, frankly, of a proper review. Look Back in Anger has a place in history as the play that injected a bit of vinegar into a stale British theatre scene, but it's so acidic it quickly eats itself up. I can see how it would have seemed daring and scandalous back in the day, but now? It's a bit too Jeremy Kyle. It's a shell so brittle it's long since been reduced to powder.

It's a story of a petty, malicious man-child, convinced of his own stunted greatness, who cajoles two dim females into abusive, co-dependent relationships with him. I say 'story', but in truth it's poor theatre: it's just an unreflective, obnoxious rant with no dynamic stage movement, plot, theme or character development. Its successful existence alongside the genuine American playwrights who emerged in the immediate post-war era (Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams) is shaming to British culture.

It's immensely mean-spirited, without any redeeming qualities. It's natural for any reader of this review to assume my negative reaction derives from the sickening, abusive nature of the relationships represented within the play's pages, but once I began to accept this and swallow it (reluctantly), I was surprised at the lack of actual artistry or dramatic competence. I find it hilarious that around the same time John Osborne was inflicting this vindictive, misogynistic trash on the British theatre scene, Shelagh Delaney was putting him to shame with her better-constructed, meritorious kitchen-sink play A Taste of Honey.

Look Back in Anger leaves a sour taste; not sour like daring theatre, but sour like toxic drain cleaner. Jimmy, the protagonist, and his two female co-dependents (they're not victims) deserve all they get. I believe people have much more agency in these situations than they claim, and while those readers who tend to keep their heads in the clouds will be reluctant to accept that some people actually behave like this, a quick glance at Osborne's bitter, acidic biography shows it's true. Such a perusal provides an inadvertent benefit to an otherwise valueless play: it's well to remember that men and women like this do really exist in the world. I don't want to read about them in a play, though, particularly one that takes their side. On the contrary, I'd like to give them the widest berth possible.
… (mais)
1 vote
Assinalado
MikeFutcher | 13 outras críticas | Aug 18, 2021 |
A take on the great reformer that spends a good deal of time discussing the state of the man's digestive tract rather than the issues that seem to me to be of more importance. It was quite a big play at the time, but I hope Time has not treated it well.
 
Assinalado
DinadansFriend | 1 outra crítica | Dec 14, 2020 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
47
Also by
5
Membros
2,603
Popularidade
#9,869
Avaliação
½ 3.5
Críticas
37
ISBN
210
Línguas
8
Marcado como favorito
1

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