Plays for England

(Paperback)

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Description

John Osborne (1929-1994) was the leading playwright of the post-war British theatre revival: a rennaissance that is said to have started when his Look Back in Anger was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre. It led to the coining of the phrase 'angry young man', which applied not only to Osborne but also to many new writers who criticised the system. But Osborne was not a conventional revolutionary; his attack on the present was in fact a mourning for the loss of past values, a stance that became clearer in his later plays. The Blood of the Bambergs, the first of the two companion "Plays for England" (1963), is a satirical account of a royal wedding. The second play, Under Plain Cover depicts a marriage in crisis that becomes a tabloid 'human interest story. Watch it Come Down (1975) is the story of a man waiting for death, while his friends trash and scar each other around him.

Reviews

This is childrens theatre at its best Anthony Clarks adaptation is both delightful and moving Anthony Clarks adaptations have become justly regarded as unmissable seasonable entertainment A wondrous childrens musical guaranteed to crack the hardest of adult hearts No neat moral yarn, but a humorous and haunting fable Independent A skilful and enchanting stage version of a 1950s classic The Times -- Michael Coveney * The Daily Mail *
This is perhaps the most audacious statement ever made on the English stage * Kenneth Tynan, Observer *
His spiritual barbarism and magnificent of contempt are doubly refreshing next to the mealy-mouthed winnowing of much over-praised contemporary playwrights * Michael Coveney, Daily Mail *

Author Bio

John Osborne was born in London in 1929. He worked as a journalist for a number of trade magazines before becoming an Assistant Stage Manager and actor with several repertory companies. Look Back in Anger (1956) has come to stand as a key text for modern British Drama, and prompted other successes with The Entertainer and Epitaph for George Dillon. He was the first of many writers to be 'discovered' by the Royal Court Theatre, and Look Back in Anger was the first of the Royal Court's plays to be internationally recognised. Osborne adapted Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer for film. He also wrote an Oscar winning screenplay adaptation of Henry Fielding's novel Tom Jones.