Osborne on the fault line: Jimmy Porter on the postmodern verge

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2012

Abstract

The unsavory impression that Jimmy Porter creates for audiences (and most readers) of Look Back in Anger is possibly the single most troubling aspect of this powerful but problematic play. At one very simple level, one must be reminded that, as Arnold Hinchliffe observes, "the original interpreters of Jimmy Porter-Kenneth Haigh and Richard Burton-were not weedy neurotics the text rather invites but substantial, even heroic, figures" (22­ 23). These actors' charismatic qualities probably did much to make this char­ acter more appealing than he appears to be today in text. In fact, these ac­ tors' interpretations of Porter in 1 956 were essentially the English equivalents of the American Marlon Brando's Stanley in Williams's 1 949 A Streetcar Named Desire.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

John Osborne: A Casebook

First Page

61

Last Page

69

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