Play Details
Context
Artistic Director
George Devine
Transferred to Lyric Hammersmith Theatre Mon 5th Nov 1956
Dates Performed
Tuesday 8th May 1956
Main House (Downstairs)
Monday 12th August 1957 – Different Cast
Main House (Downstairs)
Monday 28th October 1957 – Different Cast, Dir. John Dexter
Main House (Downstairs)
Monday 5th November 1956
Lyric Hammersmith Theatre
Play Details
Synopsis
A one-room flat in the English Midlands in the 1950s.
Jimmy Porter, a disillusioned young man from a working-class background, rages against the establishment and his wife Alison’s upper-class upbringing. Their cramped attic flat becomes a battleground of verbal abuse and emotional manipulation, with Jimmy’s friend Cliff caught in the crossfire. When Alison’s friend Helena arrives, she initially clashes with Jimmy but eventually replaces Alison when she leaves. The play culminates in a dramatic confrontation when a changed Alison returns, forcing Helena to depart and leaving Jimmy and Alison to reconcile through a bittersweet fantasy game.
Osborne’s groundbreaking play explores themes of class conflict, generational anger, and marital disillusionment through Jimmy’s vitriolic monologues and the characters’ complex relationships. The kitchen-sink realism of the setting contrasts sharply with the almost poetic intensity of Jimmy’s tirades, creating a gritty yet lyrical atmosphere. The tone oscillates between caustic humor and raw emotion, with moments of tenderness punctuating the overall sense of frustration and despair. Osborne’s style, marked by long, impassioned speeches and naturalistic dialogue, revolutionized British theater and gave voice to a generation’s discontent.
Cast & Creative
Cast
Alan Bates
Cast
Kenneth Haigh
Cast
Helena Huges
Cast
Mary Ure
Cast
John Welsh
Designer
Alan Tagg
Sound
Thomas Eastwood
Production Images
What our readers say
What’s it like reading this play now?
The play is direct and shocking, exposing the attitudes of a specific group of people at this specific time. Racist slurs and violent white supremacism occur throughout, in particular from the man who offers the band a gig. Compared to what we might see on stage today, it is disturbing in its directness
What does it tell us about the past and present?
It really made me think about how race and class are pitted against each other and the post-Brexit narrative that we hear from the current Tory government and national newspapers. On a very basic level, it can feel like “Swarms of migrates, taking jobs” Vs “Disenfranchised white working-class boys”. This feels like a divide-and-rule tactic, which echoes very similar issues that caused the 1981 Moss Side riots. This siloed way of thinking about race and class (or race VS class) runs through the whole of Oi for England – I feel very much resonates with a common narrative today.
If you like this play, you might also like…?
This is England, Death of England, The Specials
What is the social and political context of this play?
This was the early years of the Thatcher era. The world economy was in recession. The Race Relations Act of 1976 was less than a decade old. In 1981 the so-called ‘Moss Side Riot’ saw a police station attacked by an angry crowd, fuelled by racial tensions and the dispossession of mass unemployment.
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