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Celebrating the fiction that became iconic films of the Sixties

British New Wave celebrates the fiction that became iconic films of the Sixties and the figures who became icons themselves

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Stephen Wakelam

British New Wave: John Osborne - The Author of Himself

Drama

John Osborne - The Author of Himself

02/09/2013

BBC Radio 4 - British New Wave, John Osborne - The Author of Himself

Stephen Wakelam's drama charts the first meeting between John Osborne and George Devine.

Stephen Wakelam's drama charts the first meeting, on a Thames barge, between John Osborne and George Devine. George has read Look Back in Anger and has come to check Osborne out.

By Stephen Wakelam. One afternoon in 1955 Theatre Manager George Devine sets out in a rickety rowing boat to inspect an actor, John Osborne, living on a Thames barge who has written a play. Look Back in Anger has been returned by many theatres but Devine has seen something in it. The meeting is a pivotal moment in the course of theatrical history.

Director: David Hunter

Look Back in Anger was premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre on 8th May 1956 by the English Stage Company directed by Tony Richardson with the following cast - Kenneth Haigh, Alan Bates, Mary Ure, Helena Hughes and John Welsh. The press release referred to John Osborne as "an angry young man" - a phrase that came to represent a new movement in British Theatre.

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