Dark and savage, Look Back in Anger makes readers and audiences re-examine what was once called 'the good life'. Jimmy hates his wife's background, almost as much as he hates himself. The play tells the story of a love triangle between Jimmy, an intelligent and educated man of working class background, his upper-middle-class wife Alison, and her superior and disdainful best-friend Helena. John Osborne's play launched the 'angry young men' movement, writers from working or middle class background who had become disillusioned with British society, were sick of contemporary theatre's escapism, and wanted their work to reflect life as they knew it.
Look Back in Anger transformed the face of British theatre legend has it that audiences gasped at the sight of an ironing board on a London stage. Today, in an age where identity dominates the national agenda, Don't Look Back In Anger is a necessary and compelling historical document.
Through sixty-eight voices that epitomise the decade - including Tony Blair, John Major, Noel Gallagher, Damon Albarn, Tracey Emin, Keith Allen, Meera Syal, David Baddiel, Irvine Welsh and Steve Coogan - we re-live the epic highs and crashing lows of one of the most eventful periods in British history. A decade that started with hope then ended with the death of the 'people's princess' and 9/11 - an event that redefined a new world order. But it was also an era of false promises and misplaced trust, when the weight of substance was based on the airlessness of branding, spin and the first stirrings of celebrity culture. From Old Labour's defeat in 1992 through to New Labour's historic landslide in 1997, Don't Look Back In Anger chronicles the Cool Britannia age when the country united through a resurgence of patriotism and a celebration of all things British. When fashion runways shone with British talent, Young British Artists became household names, football was 'coming home' and British film went worldwide. It was the decade of Lad Culture and Girl Power of Blur vs Oasis. Not since the 'Swinging Sixties' had art, comedy, fashion, film, football, literature and music interwoven into a blooming of national self-confidence. The nineties was the decade when British culture reclaimed its position at the artistic centre of the world.
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