Themes of The Play

Apathy

Apathy is the lack of enthusiasm or lack of emotion that the characters show. Due to Helena and Alison being brought up in a boarding school where they would have been taught to act and speak properly, they would have been taught to never 'make a scene' as this is considered to be ill-mannered. It is because of this that Jimmy acts the way he does. He performs in a certain way and says things he doesn't always mean to try and get a reaction or some form of emotion out of them.  One example of this is when jimmy says "How  I long for a little ordinary human enthusiasm. Just enthusiasm - That's all". 

Social Class

Jimmy is from a working class background and despises people from the upper class which is where Helena and Alison are from. This is why Jimmy does not get along with Helena in the beginning of the play as he refers to her as "his natural enemy". This refers to the fact that they were born into different classes and are therefore instantly enemies. Jimmy loves Alison but hates her upper class background. He is always complaining about "mummy and daddy" won't approve of Alison Marrying Jimmy.

Relationships

The relationship between Alison and Helena is a love/hate relationship. They really do love each other but Jimmy doesn't agree with her upbringing so is constantly 'at war' with her to try to get her to show emotion. The relationship between Alison and Cliff is very friendly but not considered to be love or passionate in any way; However, Jimmy and Helena consider their behaviour towards each other to be very unnatural. We can relate to this as relationships like this are still present today.

Backstory

Helena and Alison are very well educated and well mannered women which suggests that they have had a high education in the past. As they both have similar mannerisms, this also suggests that they were probably friends in at the same boarding school. They would have probably attended school during the 1940's where the wealthy families would send their children to expensive boarding schools to receive and education and learn how to behave properly; Their uniforms would have been similar to the image shown below.



Alison and Jimmy would have met after Helena and Alison left boarding school. Due to Jimmy's hatred towards higher class people, Helena and Alison would not have spoken or kept contact with each other as much. This is shown as Cliff has not met Helena before and is unaware of what Helena's behaviour is like.

The Angry Young Men

"The angry young men were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading members included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis.

John Osborne’s play, Look Back in Anger, was the huge literary work that influenced the concept of the Angry Young Men. Osborne wrote the play to express what it felt like to live in England during the 1950s. The main issues that Angry Young Men had were "impatience with the status quo, refusal to be co-opted by a bankrupt society and an instinctive solidarity with the lower classes." Referred to as "kitchen sink realism," literary works began to deal with lower class themes. In the decades prior to Osborne and other authors, less attention had been given to literature that illuminated the treatment and living circumstances experienced by the lower classes. As the Angry Young Men movement began to articulate these themes, the acceptance of related issues was more widespread. Osborne depicted these issues within his play through the eyes of his protagonist, Jimmy. Throughout the play, Jimmy was seeing "the wrong people go hungry, the wrong people be loved, the wrong people dying".

In post-World War Britain, the quality of life for lower class citizens was very poor; Osborne used this theme to demonstrate how the state of Britain was guilty of neglect towards those that needed assistance the most. In the play there are comparisons of educated people with savages, illuminating the major difference between classes. Alison remarks on this issue while she, Jimmy and Cliff are sharing an apartment, stating how "she felt she had been placed into a jungle". Jimmy was represented as an embodiment of the young, rebellious post-war generation that questioned the state and its actions.

Stage Design and costume design

Set Design

Look Back in anger was set in the 1950's. For our set design we will need to ensure that the set is within the right context that the play is set in to make it seem real and believable.

In the 1950's, technology was very limited, televisions were very new and the radio was people's source of entertainment. Furniture in the 1950's included an old fashioned stove, outdated fabric patterns as well as clashing prints.

Below is a basic set layout of how I would have the stage set up if I was to produce this play in the theatre with a real budget.

Props

The props I would use for this production would be:

• Iron
• Ironing board
• Teapot
• Pipe
• Ashtray
• Cup and saucer
• Cutlery
• Couch cushions
• Vase with flowers on the coffee table
• Table cloth

Due to the location being in college and not having a budget to buy real furniture and all the props needed. I would just use key props that are needed for the scene I am doing such as a teapot, pipe, newspapers and a cup and saucer.

As I would not be able to use real furniture for the scene. I would use stage blocks and fold-away chairs to represent the main items of furniture in this scene.

Costume

Helena and Alison were both brought up at a strict boarding school were they were taught how to walk, talk and behave properly. Their costume in the 1950's would have been a skirt or dress below the knee with a blouse.I imagine that Helena would dress more like the two women on the right as she was considered to be a bit more free spirited and rebellious and Helena would dress more understated like the two women on the left. For my costume i would go to local charity shops to find a long patterned skirt and a blouse for Helena. I would not be able to wear jeans for this as Alison and Helena were brought up in a posh boarding school environment so are very unlikely to wear jeans. Jean were brought in by women in the late 1950's but were very 'hit and miss' and considered to be and outrageous wardrobe choice in that time period. I would also have a look for shoes with a small heel and skin coloured stockings

Hair

Women's hair in the 1950's was very neat and every curl in place. They usually had their hair tied back in a bun or very short curls with one pin curl at the front of the head. For my hair, i would try to achieve the style on the left as my hair is a lot longer than the first picture shown below. Also, Helena's character is considered to be a bit more free minded so i think that this look describes it best.

Deportment

In this session we looked at deportment. Deportment means the way you hold yourself as a character. We looked at various techniques to achieve  Our character's style of walk, talk and how they sit. Helena and Alison were brought up in a posh boarding school were they were taught how to behave properly. This included lessons such as walking with a book on their heads.

After this we focused on how a lady would sit. We discussed that they would not slouch and would always keep their knees together as they would usually be wearing skirts.

Women would also be told to hold their head up as a sense of confidence and pride as well as being lady like.

With my character Helena, i would show all these postures within my performance as this is what Helena would have been taught in school. I will practice this in rehearsals to ensure that i am comfortable sitting and standing like this.

Blocking and Research (week two)

Wednesday 13th May

In this session, we looked at emotion memory . This is where you remember a specific memory and use the emotion from that to act out a scene where that emotion is relative.

Thursday 14th May

In this session, we focused on Stanislavsky and his background in theatre and acting. He was born on January 5 1863 and died on 7 August 1938 and was a Russian actor and theatre director. The Stanislavsky system has had a pervasive influence, especially in the period after World War II.

Stanislavsky treated theatre-making as a serious endeavour requiring dedication, discipline and integrity. Throughout his life, he subjected his own acting to a process of rigorous artistic self-analysis and reflection. His development of a theorized praxis—in which practice is used as a mode of inquiry and theory as a catalyst for creative development—identifies him as one of the great modern theatre practitioners.



Stanislavsky's "system"

"Stanislavsky's "system" is a systematic approach to training actors. Areas of study include concentration, voice, physical skills, emotion memory, observation, and dramatic analysis. Stanislavsky's goal was to find a universally applicable approach that could be of service to all actors. Yet he said of his system: "Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep breaking traditions, I beg you."

Many actors routinely identify his system with Lee Strasbourg's Method approach, an adaptation of Stanislavsky's approach. Strasbourg's adaptation relied exclusively on psychological techniques and contrasted sharply with Stanislavsky's multivariate, holistic and psycho-physical approach, which explores character and action both from the "inside out" and the "outside in." Stella Adler, who had studied with Stanislavsky, offered an American adaptation of the technique much more in keeping with that of Stanislavsky focusing on both inner and outer sources of experience in building a character."

Emotion memory

Stanislavsky's system focused on the development of artistic truth onstage by teaching actors to "experience the part" during performance. Stanislavsky hoped that the 'system' could be applied to all forms of drama, including melodrama, vaudeville, and opera. He organised a series of theatre studios in which young actors were trained in his 'system.' At the First Studio, actors were instructed to use their own memories in order to express emotion.

Stanislavsky soon observed that some of the actors using or abusing this technique were given to hysteria. He began to search for more reliable means to access emotion, eventually emphasizing the actor's use of imagination and belief in the given circumstances of the text rather than her/his private and often painful memories.

The Method of Physical Actions

In the beginning, Stanislavsky proposed that actors study and experience subjective emotions and feelings and manifest them to audiences by physical and vocal means. While in its very earliest stages his 'system' focused on creating truthful emotions and embodying them, he later worked on the Method of Physical Actions. This was developed at the Opera Dramatic Studio from the early 1930's. Its focus was on physical actions as a means to access truthful emotion, and involved improvisation. The focus remained on reaching the subconscious through the conscious.

Source of information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Stanislavsky

I would use the more technical approach rather than using emotion memory to act natural as I think using emotion memory is unethical as an actor could unlock a memory of a bad time for them and not be able to turn it off or on in their acting as this would have made them too emotion to focus on acting. Using a technical approach allows them to act naturally without accessing real emotions by them remembering things that could emotionally harm them.
 Blocking

In this session we looked at reading the piece and blocking it through. As this is a very naturalistic scene, it focuses more on the characters and their dialect and language rather than their movement and actions. This scene is considered to be very awkward between Helena and Alison

 

Introduction (Week one)

Wednesday 6th May

In this session we began to Look at Look Back in Anger by John Osbourne. Look Back in Anger is a play set in 1956 and involves a love triangle between Jimmy (an intelligent and educated but disaffected young man of working-class origin), his wife, Alison ( upper-middle-class and impassive) and her friend Helena who is considered to be arrogant and self obsessed. This play also includes a character called Cliff who is laid back and attempts to keep the peace.

Synopsis

"Look Back in Anger begins in the attic flat apartment of Jimmy Porter and Alison Porter. The setting is mid-1950's small town England. Jimmy and Alison share their apartment with Cliff Lewis, a young working class man who is best friends with Jimmy. Cliff and Jimmy both come from a working class background, though Jimmy has had more education than Cliff. They are in business together running a sweet-stall. Alison comes from a more prominent family and it is clear from the beginning that Jimmy resents this fact.
The first act opens on a Sunday in April. Jimmy and Cliff are reading the Sunday papers while Alison is ironing in a corner of the room. Jimmy is a hot tempered young man and he begins to try and provoke both Cliff and Alison. He is antagonistic towards Cliff's working class background and makes fun of him for his low intelligence. Cliff is good natured and takes the antagonism. Jimmy attempts to provoke his wife, Alison, by making fun of her family and her well-heeled life before she married him. Jimmy also seems to display a nostalgia for England's powerful past. He notes that the world has entered a "dreary" American age, a fact he begrudgingly accepts. Alison tires of Jimmy's rants and begs for peace. This makes Jimmy more fevered in his insults. Cliff attempts to keep peace between the two and this leads to a playful scuffle between the two. Their wrestling ends up running into Alison, causing her to fall down. Jimmy is sorry for the incident, but Alison makes him leave the room.
After Jimmy leaves, Alison confides to Cliff that she is pregnant with Jimmy's child, though she has not yet told Jimmy. Cliff advises her to tell him, but when Cliff goes out and Jimmy re-enters the room, the two instead fall into an intimate game. Jimmy impersonates a stuffed bear and Alison impersonates a toy squirrel. Cliff returns to tell Alison that her old friend, Helena Charles, has called her on the phone. Alison leaves to take the call and returns with the news that Helena is coming to stay for a visit. Jimmy does not like Helena and goes into a rage in which he wishes that Alison would suffer in order to know what it means to be a real person. He curses her and wishes that she could have a child only to watch it die.

 

Two weeks later, Helena has arrived and Alison discusses her relationship with Jimmy. She tells of how they met and how, in their younger days, they used to crash parties with their friend Hugh Tanner. Jimmy maintains an affection for Hugh's mother, though his relationship with Hugh was strained when Hugh left to travel the world and Jimmy stayed to be with Alison. Jimmy seems to regret that he could not leave, but he is also angry at Hugh for abandoning his mother. Helena inquires about Alison's affectionate relationship with Cliff and Alison tells her that they are strictly friends.
Cliff and Jimmy return to the flat and Helena tells them that she and Alison are leaving for church. Jimmy goes into an anti-religious rant and ends up insulting Alison's family once again. Helena becomes angry and Jimmy dares her to slap him on the face, warning her that he will slap her back. He tells her of how he watched his father die as a young man. His father had been injured fighting in the Spanish Civil War and had returned to England only to die shortly after. Alison and Helena begin to leave for church and Jimmy feels betrayed by his wife.
A phone call comes in for Jimmy and he leaves the room. Helena tells Alison that she has called Alison's father to come get her and take her away from this abusive home. Alison relents and says that she will go when her father picks her up the next day. When Jimmy returns, he tells Alison that Mrs. Tanner, Hugh's mother, has become sick and is going to die. Jimmy decides to visit her and he demands that Alison make a choice of whether to go with Helena or with him. Alison picks up her things and leaves for church and Jimmy collapses on the bed, heartbroken by his wife's decision.
The next evening Alison is packing and talking with her father, Colonel Redfern. The Colonel is a soft spoken man who realizes that he does not quite understand the love that exists between Jimmy and Alison. He admits that the actions of him and his wife are partly to blame for their split. The Colonel was an officer in the British military and served in India and he is nostalgic for his time there. He considers his service to be some of the best years of his life. Alison observes that her father is hurt because the present is not the past and that Jimmy is hurt because he feels the present is only the past. Alison begins to pack her toy squirrel, but then she decides not to do so.
Helena and Cliff soon enter the scene. Alison leaves a letter for Jimmy explaining why she has left and she gives it to Cliff. After Alison leaves, Cliff becomes angry and gives the letter to Helena, blaming her for the situation. Jimmy returns, bewildered that he was almost hit by Colonel Redfern's car and that Cliff pretended not to see him when he was walking by on the street. He reads Alison's letter and becomes very angry. Helena tells him that Alison is pregnant, but Jimmy tells her that he does not care. He insults Helena and she slaps him, then passionately kisses him.
Several months pass and the third act opens with Jimmy and Cliff once again reading the Sunday papers while Helena stands in the corner ironing. Jimmy and Cliff still engage in their angry banter and Helena's religious tendencies have taken the brunt of Jimmy's punishment. Jimmy and Cliff perform scenes from musicals and comedy shows but when Helena leaves, Cliff notes that things do not feel the same with her here. Cliff then tells Jimmy that he wants to move out of the apartment. Jimmy takes the news calmly and tells him that he has been a loyal friend and is worth more than any woman. When Helena returns, the three plan to go out. Alison suddenly enters.

 

Alison and Helena talk while Jimmy leaves the room. He begins to loudly play his trumpet. Alison has lost her baby and looks sick. Helena tells Alison that she should be angry with her for what she has done, but Alison is only grieved by the loss of her baby. Helena is driven to distraction by Jimmy's trumpet playing and demands that he come into the room. When he comes back in, he laments the fact that Alison has lost the baby but shrugs it off. Helena then tells Jimmy and Alison that her sense of morality -- right and wrong -- has not diminished and that she knows she must leave. Alison attempts to persuade her to stay, telling her that Jimmy will be alone if she leaves.
When Helena leaves, Jimmy attempts to once again become angry but Alison tells him that she has now gone through the emotional and physical suffering that he has always wanted her to feel. He realizes that she has suffered greatly, has become like him, and becomes softer and more tender towards her. The play ends with Jimmy and Alison embracing, once again playing their game of bear and squirrel."

 

Source: http://www.gradesaver.com/look-back-in-anger/study-guide/summary
John Osbourne

John James Osborne was born on 12 December 1929 and passed away on  24 December 1994. He was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, known for his critical views towards established social and political events . The success of his 1956 play 'Look Back in Anger' transformed English theatre.

Thursday 7th May

In this session, we looked at Stanislavski. Konstantin Stanislavski is the main practitioner that relates to Look Back in Anger due to his interest in Naturalism. We looked at how he used various techniques to make acting more believable and realistic. One technique we looked at was finding a ten pound note. To begin, we were told to pretend we were looking for a ten pound note as if we has lost it. We were then told that a real ten pound note was hidden somewhere in the room and if we didn't find it within a minute that we wouldn't get it back. After doing this, we compared the difference between acting and real life. One difference that I did when acting was I looked at places I wouldn't normally look if I had really lost it; for example, under a chair leg. I also announced that I had lost it when I walked in the room which i would not normally do. In real life, I was panicking a lot more and rushing round a lot more. 


Another technique we looked at was showing emotion through reading a letter. To begin with, we were told to open a letter and pretend we had received either good news or bad news. Then we did the same again except the letter had instructions on it that said "Concentrate on reading this letter. As you look at this, decide, as a performer, if you're reading good news or bad news. Give it time to register on your face, then fold up the paper and exit" This technique is very effective as the audience does not know that you are reading instructions and therefore can imagine what you're feeling. The difference between acting and real life was that it was a lot more dramatic than it needed to be to be effective.  I would use this technique when performing my piece from Look back in anger by focusing on facial expressions and language rather than actions and large gestures as I would not use a large amount of actions if this was happening to me in real life.