Look Back in Anger
By John Osborne, Directed by Atri Banerjee
Event details
Fri 20 Sep - Sat 30 Nov 2024
★★★★
“A crackling piece of drama”
Evening Standard
You see, I learnt at an early age what it was to be angry – angry and helpless. And I can never forget it.
Jimmy Porter is frustrated by his post-war life running a local stall. Embittered by the disapproval of his wife Alison’s wealthier family and a world that has shut him out, he frequently spirals into fits of rage.
One night, when Alison’s friend unexpectedly turns up at their home, this uneasy marriage descends further into freefall, with their friends left trying to keep the peace.
Former Almeida Resident Director Atri Banerjee (The Glass Menagerie) directs Billy Howle (The Perfect Couple) and Ellora Torchia (Midsommar) in a new production of John Osborne’s ground-breaking, furious play which, alongside Arnold Wesker’s Roots, changed British theatre forever. Now the mirror they held up to 1950s society is angled towards 2024, with the two plays running alongside each other in repertory for 11 weeks, as part of the Almeida’s Angry and Young season.
Running Time Approx. 2 hours & 45 mins, incl. interval
Subject to change during previews.
Evenings 7.30pm
Matinees 2pm
Access Performances
Book our access performances by calling Box Office on 020 7359 4404 or email boxoffice@almeida.co.uk.
Audio Described Sat 2 Nov 2pm (Touch Tour 12pm)
Captioned Thu 31 Oct 7.30pm
Relaxed Environment Wed 30 Oct 7.30pm & Wed 6 Nov 2pm
Content Warnings Read more about our production guidance and warnings>
reviews
Cast & Creatives
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Cast
Morfydd ClarkMorfydd Clark
Morfydd Clark
Theatre includes: The Colours (Soho Theatre); The Cherry Orchard (Sherman Theatre, Cardiff); King Lear (The Old Vic); Les Liasons Dangereuses (Donmar Warehouse); Romeo and Juliet (Sheffield Theatres); Violence & Son (Royal Court); Blodeuwedd (Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru); No Other Day Like Today (National Youth Theatre Wales).
Film includes: Starve Acre; Saint Maud; Crawl; Eternal Beauty; The Personal History of David Copperfield; The Man Who Invented Christmas; Interlude in Prague; Love & Friendship; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; The Call Up; The Falling; Madame Bovary; Two Missing.
Television includes: Murder is Easy; The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Dracula; His Dark Materials; Patrick Melrose; The City and The City; The Alienist; Arthur and George; Dylan Thomas: A Poet in New York; New Worlds.
Iwan DaviesIwan Davies
Iwan Davies
Iwan trained at RADA.
Theatre includes: Backstairs Billy (West End); The Corn is Green (National Theatre).
Television includes: A Small Light; Anatomy of a Scandal; A Christmas Carol; Gwaith/Cartref.
Billy HowleBilly Howle
Billy Howle
Theatre includes: Dear Octopus (National Theatre); Hamlet; Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Bristol Old Vic); Europe (Donmar Warehouse); Life of Galileo (Young Vic); Ghosts (BAM, New York).
Film includes: Kid Snow; Infinite Storm; Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker; Outlaw King; Dunkirk; On Chesil Beach; The Seagull; The Sense of an Ending.
Television includes: The Perfect Couple; Under the Banner of Heaven; Chloe; The Serpent; The Beast Must Die; MotherFatherSon; Glue.
Ellora TorchiaEllora Torchia
Ellora Torchia
For the Almeida: The Treatment.
Theatre includes: All’s Well That Ends Well; The Two Noble Kinsmen (Shakespeare’s Globe); Boys Will Be Boys (Bush Theatre/ Headlong); Macbeth (Arcola Theatre).
Film includes: Cold Storage; A Real Pain; In the Earth; Crisis; Ali & Ava; Midsommar; Dreamland; Les Cowboys; Premier Vacances.
Television includes: Silent Witness; House of the Dragon; Generation Z; The Gold; Grantchester; The Nevers; Infiniti; The Split; Dark Money; Broadchurch; Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands; Indian Summers; Spooks; The Suspisions of Mr Whicher; DCI Banks; On The Edge.
Deka WalmsleyDeka Walmsley
Deka Walmsley
For the Almeida: Enemies.
Theatre includes: Fisherman’s Friends: The Musical (Hall for Cornwall); A Midsummer Night’s Dream; As You Like It; The Tempest (Shakespeare’s Globe/ International tour); An Enemy of the People; Wonderland (Nottingham Playhouse); Playing with Fire; Macbeth; The Pitmen Painters (National Theatre/ Broadway); Cockpit (Royal Lyceum Theatre); Fatherland (Frantic Assembly); Secret Heart (Royal Exchange); Harriet Martineau Dreams of Dancing; Laughter When We’re Dead (Live Theatre); Cyrano (Bristol Old Vic); Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads (York Theatre Royal/ UK tour); Home Shetland (National Theatre of Scotland); Gaffer (York Theatre Royal/ Southwark Playhouse); Keepers of the Flame (RSC); News from the 7th Floor (Watford Palace); Bones (Hampstead Theatre); Mapping the Edge (Sheffield Theatres); Andorra; Stars in the Morning Sky (Northern Stage); Billy Elliot; Cooking with Elvis; Blood Brothers (West End).
Film includes: Blue Jean; A Banquet.
Television includes: Truelove; Deceit; The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself; The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe; Vera; Three Girls; Our Friends in the North; Nature Boy; Ticket to Ride; Rebus; Waiters; Breeze Block; Grease Monkey; 55 Degrees North; Waking the Dead; Dirty War; Inspector George Gently.
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Creatives
John Osborne
Writer
Atri BanerjeeAtri Banerjee
Director
Atri Banerjee
Atri was previously on the Almeida’s Resident Director Scheme. He is a recipient of the 2022-24 Peter Hall Bursary at the National Theatre, Creative Associate at the Gate Theatre, and previously Trainee Director at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. He is a Trustee of the Regional Theatre Young Directors’ Scheme.
For the Almeida: Name, Place, Animal, Thing (as part of Six Artists in Search of a Play).
Theatre includes: Julius Caesar (RSC); The Glass Menagerie (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester/ Rose Theatre Kingston/ UK tour); SHED: EXPLODED VIEW; Hobson’s Choice (The Stage Debut Award for Best Director); Utopia (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Britannicus (Lyric Hammersmith); Kes (Octagon Theatre, Bolton/ Theatre by the Lake); HARM (Bush Theatre); ERROR ERROR ERROR (The Marlowe, Canterbury/ RSC); Into the Woods (Bristol Old Vic Theatre School); Europe (LAMDA).
Film includes: HARM.
Naomi DawsonNaomi Dawson
Set Designer
Naomi Dawson
Theatre includes: Shed: Exploded View; Light Falls; Happy Days (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Hope has a Happy Meal; That Is Not Who I Am/Rapture; Scenes with girls; The Woods (Royal Court); Akedah; The Breach; The Animal Kingdom; Wildefire; Belongings; The Gods Weep (Hampstead Theatre); Fair Play (Bush Theatre); The Convert; The Container; Phaedra’s Love (Young Vic); Romeo and Juliet; As You Like It (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Duchess of Malfi; Doctor Faustus; The White Devil; The Roaring Girl; As You Like It; King John (RSC); The Winter’s Tale (Roma Abbey, Romakloster); Beryl (Leeds Playhouse/UK tour); Kasimir & Karoline; Fanny & Alexander; Love & Money (Malmö Stadsteater); Hotel; Three More Sleepless Nights (National Theatre); Amerika; Krieg der Bilder (Staatstheater Mainz); Scorched (The Old Vic); Mary Shelley; The Glass Menagerie; Speechless (UK tour) State of Emergency; Mariana Pineda (Gate Theatre); Stallerhof; Richard III; The Cherry Orchard; Summer Begins (Southwark Playhouse); If That’s All There Is (Lyric Hammersmith); The Typist (Sky Arts); Attempts on Her Life (Battersea Arts Centre); Home; In Blood; Venezuela; Mud; Trash (Arcola Theatre).
Opera includes: Madama Butterfly; The Lottery; The Fairy Queen (Bury Court Opera); Madama Butterfly (Arcola Theatre).
Tomás PalmerTomás Palmer
Costume Designer
Tomás Palmer
Tomás is an artist and designer who works across theatre, dance, opera and performance art. Tomás trained at The Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. He is a recipient of the 2021 Linbury Prize for Theatre Design. As an artist, he has created installations and performance pieces for the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Transmission Gallery and Embassy Gallery.
Theatre includes:As Set and Costume Designer: Liberation Squares (Nottingham Playhouse) Dreaming and Drowning (Bush Theatre); Blue Mist (Royal Court); The Bacchae (Lyric Hammersmith); My Uncle Is Not Pablo Escobar (Brixton House); Autocue (Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow).
As Costume Designer: Multiple Casualty Incident (The Yard); Julius Caesar (RSC).Lee CurranLee Curran
Lighting Designer
Lee Curran
For the Almeida: Roots; Look Back in Anger; King Lear; Romeo and Juliet; A Streetcar Named Desire (also West End); Summer and Smoke (also West End); Dance Nation.
Theatre includes: Constellations (West End/ Broadway/ Royal Court); Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre/ US tour/ Barbican); Next to Normal (West End/Donmar Warehouse); Player Kings (West End/ UK tour); Henry V; Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar Warehouse); The House of Bernarda Alba; The Welkin; Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear – The Musical; Protest Song (National Theatre); Britannicus (Lyric Hammersmith); The Song Project; Gundog; Road; Nuclear War; a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (-noun); X; Linda (Royal Court); The Glass Menagerie; West Side Story (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester/ UK tour); Nora: A Doll’s House (Young Vic/ Citizens Theatre, Glasgow); The Two Character Play (Hampstead Theatre); Harm (Bush Theatre); Burgerz (Hackney Showroom); Julius Caesar; Doctor Faustus (RSC).
Opera includes: Orphée et Eurydice (Royal Opera House/Teatro alla Scala); Aida; Fidelio; Nothing (Royal Danish Opera); Tosca (Opera North/Opera Australia); Phaedra (Royal Opera House).
Dance includes: Cycles, Blak Whyte Gray (Blue Boy Entertainment); The Limit (Royal Opera House); We Are As Gods (James Cousins Company); Enowate (Dickson Mbi); Clowns; Sun; Political Mother; In Your Rooms; Uprising (Hofesh Shechter Company); Don Quixote (Royal Danish Ballet); Untouchable (Royal Ballet); Grey Matter; Tomorrow; Frames (Rambert).
Peter RicePeter Rice
Sound Designer
Peter Rice
Peter is a freelance Sound Designer for Theatre & Short Film. He is Course Leader for Sound Design & Production at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Chair of the Association for Sound Design and Production, Sound Associate for NYX Electronic Drone Choir, and a founder member of Stage Sight. Peter also produces and presents the podcast ‘Conversations with Sound Designers’.
For the Almeida: King Lear; A Streetcar Named Desire (also West End); The Tragedy of Macbeth; The Tragedy of King Richard II; Oil.
Theatre includes: House of Bernarda Alba; Deep Blue Sea; On The Shore Of The Wide World (National Theatre); Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train; Yellowman; It’s All Kicking Off Everywhere; Trade; Barbarians; Fireface (Young Vic); This Is Not Who I Am; Gundog; Nuclear War (Royal Court); A Streetcar Named Desire; Hamlet; Scuttlers; The Last Days of Troy; Blindsided; That Day We Sang; Cannibals; Orpheus Descending; Saturday Night/Sunday Morning; Black Roses (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Masque Of Anarchy (Manchester International Festival); Miss Julie; Black Comedy (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Fruit Trilogy (Southbank Centre/ West Yorkshire Playhouse); Romeo and Juliet (Sheffield Theatres); The Funfair (HOME, Manchester).
Film includes: Fellow Creatures; Snapshots; Drown; Grin; Swansong; G.O.D.; Glue.
Imogen KnightImogen Knight
Movement Director
Imogen Knight
Imogen is an artist who works with the body. She applies her practice in theatre, film, music, television, performance art and opera. She is a Somatic Experiencing therapist and is currently training in NeuroAffective Touch with Dr. Aline Le Pierre.
For the Almeida: King Lear; Women, Beware the Devil; The Tragedy of King Richard the Second; Against; Carmen Disruption; Little Revolution; Filumena.
Theatre includes:
As Creator and Co-Creator: Robin/Red/Breast; They; The Nico Project; The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca; The Striker (Manchester International Festival); The Horse (Edinburgh Fringe/ Barbican/ European tour); Rheinklang – Ein Chorritual (Theater Basel); The Body Remembers (Battersea Arts Centre); Nuclear War (Royal Court);As Collaborator: The Confessions (Avignon Festival/ National Theatre/ European tour); Amadeus; Les Blancs; Edward II (National Theatre); Dear England (Barbican/ Southbank Centre); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf; The Birthday Party; Uncle Vanya; Rosmersholm (West End); Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour (National Theatre of Scotland/ West End); The Wife Of Willesden; Red Velvet (Kiln Theatre/ BAM, New York); The Crucible (The Old Vic).
Opera includes: The Handmaids Hale; The Dead City; Powder Her Face; A Winter’s Tale (ENO);
Film includes: Firebrand; Harm; The Secret Affair; On Chesil Beach; Here.
Television includes: Dope Girls; Ronja the Robber’s Daughter; Chernobyl; The Power; MotherFatherSon; The Innocents; The Rook; Harlots; The Hollow Crown.
Imogen is part of the theatre collective company MAAT with Maxine Peake and Sarah Frankcom, Movement Director for NYX Electronic Drone Choir.
Yarit DorYarit Dor
Fight & Intimacy Director
Yarit Dor
Yarit is a multidisciplinary creative working as a Fight Director, IDC Certified Intimacy Director and Movement Director. She is co-director of Moving Body Arts and an Ensemble Associate Artist of The Shakespeare’s Globe. In 2019 she originated the role of the Intimacy Director in the West End and recently she’s been awarded a Fellow of Rose Bruford College.
For the Almeida: The Years;“Daddy” A Melodrama.
Theatre includes: Why Am I So Single; Hamilton; The Shark Is Broken (West End); Hadestown (West End/ National Theatre); A Strange Loop (Barbican); Death Of A Salesman (West End/ Young Vic); Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre); Othello; Henry V; The Merchant of Venice; Richard II; Hamlet; As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Band’s Visit, Love & Other Acts Of Violence (Donmar Warehouse); The Homecoming; The Second Woman; Changing Destiny (Young Vic); A View From The Bridge (Headlong); This Is Not Who I Am (Royal Court); Old Bridge (Bush Theatre).
Film includes: Wicked.
Television includes: Daisy Jones and The Six; Mood; The Rings of Power.
Dance includes: Weather Is Sweet; Death Trap; Peaky Blinders (Rambert Dance Company); The Burnt City (Punchdrunk).
Amy Ball CDGAmy Ball CDG
Casting Director
Amy Ball CDG
For the Almeida: The Years; Alma Mater; Cold War; Portia Coughlan; Women, Beware the Devil; “Daddy” A Melodrama; Albion; The Hunt; Shipwreck; Dance Nation; Boy.
Theatre includes: Hamnet (RSC); Lyonesse; The Hills of California; Jerusalem; Leopoldstadt; Uncle Vanya; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf; The Night of Iguana; Rosmersholm; True West; The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?; The Pillowman (West End); The Son (Kiln Theatre/ West End); Sweat (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); The Ferryman (Royal Court/ Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre/ West End); The Moderate Soprano (Hampstead Theatre/ West End); The Birthday Party; Consent (National Theatre/ West End); Hangmen (Royal Court/ West End/ Atlantic Theater Company); Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar Warehouse); Stories; Exit the King (National Theatre); White Noise; A Very Very Very Dark Matter (Bridge Theatre); The Brothers Size (Young Vic); Maryland; ear for eye; Girls & Boys; Cyprus Avenue (Royal Court).
Sabia SmithSabia Smith
Costume Supervisor
Sabia Smith
Sabia studied Costume Construction and Supervision at RADA.
Theatre includes: Next to Normal (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); Duchess of Malfi; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights; Midsummer Mechanicals (Shakespeare’s Globe); Ulster American (Riverside Studios); Robin Hood: The Legend. Re-written. (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Inquiry (Chichester Festival Theatre); Favour (Bush Theatre); Love and Other Acts of Violence (Donmar Warehouse); Noises Off (West End); Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] (Park Theatre); The American Clock (The Old Vic); Twelfth Night (Wilton’s Music Hall); We’re Stuck! (Shoreditch Town Hall).
Opera includes: Aleko; Gianni Schicchi; Gods of the Game: a Football Opera; La Gioconda; The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko; Falstaff; Don Carlos (Grange Park Opera); Zauberland (Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord/ Royal Opera House/ La Monnaie / De Munt/ Opéra de Lille/ Lincoln Center, New York/ Opéra de Rouen); The Marriage of Figaro (Royal Academy of Music).
Film includes: Nation Down.
Television includes: Gods of the Game: A Football Opera.
Dance includes: Anne of Green Gables (Sadler’s Wells); Message In A Bottle (Sadler’s Wells/ International tour).
Edda SharpeEdda Sharpe
Dialect Coach
Edda Sharpe
Theatre includes: English (RSC/ Kiln Theatre); The Witches (National Theatre); And Then There Were None (UK tour); Baghdaddy (Royal Court); My Fair Lady (ENO); Oleanna (Theatre Royal Bath/ West End); The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Lyric Hammersmith/ Chichester Festival Theatre); Love, Love, Love; A Doll’s House (Lyric Hammersmith); When the Crows Visit; Approaching Empty (Kiln Theatre); The Other Boleyn Girl; Hedda Tesman (Chichester Festival Theatre); Hobson’s Choice (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Switzerland; King Lear (Theatre Royal Bath); Witness for the Prosecution (County Hall) Lions and Tigers (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Graduate (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Anita and Me (Birmingham Rep); East is East (West End); The Rover; Volpone; Wendy and Peter Pan; What Country Friends Is This; The Homecoming; I’ll Be The Devil (RSC).
Film includes: Far from the Madding Crowd; The Door; The Anomaly; Kajaki.
Written works include: How To Do Accents.
Edda has also worked on over 20 seasons as Head of Voice and Dialect at the Shaw Festival Theatre, Ontario.
Chloe ChristianChloe Christian
Associate Director
Chloe Christian
Chloe is an award-winning, multidisciplinary director, working across theatre, musical theatre and opera. Their first production, Child’s Play, was awarded New Diorama’s Emerging Company 2018. In 2020, they were awarded the English National Opera Studio Live Commission for their conceptual pitch of Judith Weir’s Blond Eckbert.
Theatre includes:
As Director: Mirrorball; GRILLS (Camden People’s Theatre); Without That Certain Thing (VAULT Festival); When Five Years Pass (Cervantes Theatre); Child’s Play (New Diorama Theatre).
As Associate Director: Julius Caesar (RSC); Cock (West End); The Valkyrie; Carmen; Orpheus in the Underworld; War Requiem (London Coliseum); Light in the Piazza (Southbank Centre); Paul Bunyan (Wilton’s Music Hall/ Alexandra Palace); Musical Differences (Sheffield Theatres).
Rhys DennisRhys Dennis
Associate Movement Director
Rhys Dennis
Rhys is a choreographer, movement director and facilitator based between London and Brazil.
Theatre includes: REP (The Sainsbury Theatre); After Life (Courtyard Theatre); PlayFight (Pleasance Theatre/ Seven Dials Playhouse); Eve and Cain (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch).
Dance includes: Out of Many (The Place/ Trinity Laban); Black Is… (Sadler’s Wells/ Victoria & Albert Museum); Into Orbit (Latitude Festival); …in silent company (Theater Bellevue/ Amsterdam & Netherlands tour); Light Night Leeds (Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre); Friday Late (Victoria & Albert Museum); RISE: Brent Opening Ceremony 2020 (Wembley Stadium).
Other work includes: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra x FUBUNATION.
Wabriya KingWabriya King
Production Dramatherapist
Wabriya King
Wabriya is a qualified dramatherapist (Roehampton University), actress (The Oxford School of Drama), creative facilitator and Reiki practitioner. She combines her experience to support creatives alongside the rehearsal and performance period.
For the Almeida: Alma Mater; Romeo and Juliet; The Secret Life of Bees.
Theatre includes: Shifters; August In England (Bush Theatre); Samuel Takes A Break (The Yard); Beautiful Thing; Tambo & Bones (Theatre Royal Stratford East); A Strange Loop (Barbican); Cowbois; Falkland Sound; The Empress; Julius Caesar (RSC); School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play (Lyric Hammersmith); Matthew Bourne’s Romeo & Juliet (International tour); Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Complicité); For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy (New Diorama Theatre/ Royal Court/ West End); Blue (ENO); Further than the Furthest Thing (Young Vic); Family Tree (Actors Touring Company); Bootycandy (Gate Theatre); Blues for an Alabama Sky (National Theatre); Hamilton; Moulin Rouge (West End).
angry and young Season
Look Back in Anger is presented in rep with Arnold Wesker‘s Roots as part of our Angry and Young season.
Concessions
All concession tickets are limited and subject to availability. Proof of eligibility is required. More info
Deaf and disabled patrons and a companion can buy discounted tickets by calling the Box Office on 020 7359 4404 or email boxoffice@almeida.co.uk.
£5 tickets will be available to those aged 25 and under for performances from Fri 20 – Fri 27 Sep. Enter code 25UNDER when selecting your seats. Tickets go on sale at 5pm on Tue 20 Aug. More info
If you are aged 30 or under, over 65 or are unemployed you can book tickets at a discounted rate. Not applicable on Fri or Sat evenings.
If you live or work in the Islington area you can book best available seats for £25 for performances from Fri 20 – Sat 28 Sep & Tue 2 Oct, subject to availability. Enter promo code ISFIRST when selecting your seats. Find applicable postcodes here.
Access Performances
Audio Described Sat 2 Nov 2pm (Touch Tour 12pm)
Captioned Thu 31 Oct 7.30pm
Relaxed Environment Wed 30 Oct 7.30pm & Wed 6 Nov 2pm
For full information about how to book for our access performances please visit our Access For All Page.
Talks & Events
Talkback
After Mon 18 Nov performance
A post-show talk with members of the company. Free to same-day ticket holders.
Almeida For Free
Thu 10 Oct 7.30pm
A free performance for those aged 25 and under. More info >
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Artwork photography by Gavin Li. Concept by Studio Doug.