SOURCE: Sierz, Aleks. “John Osborne and the Myth of Anger.” New Theatre Quarterly 12, no. 46 (May 1996): 136-46.

In the following essay, Sierz investigates how Look Back in Anger became an iconic work.

The people I should like to contact—if I knew how—aren't likely to be reading this book anyway. If they have ever heard of me, it is only as a rather odd-looking ‘angry young man’.

—John Osborne, “They Call It Cricket”

When John Osborne died on Christmas Eve 1994, The Guardian, along with other newspapers, reported the event on its front page. Under the headline ‘John Osborne, founding “angry young man”, dies aged 65’, the report emphasized the two things that readers were expected to know about Osborne: that he was ‘the original angry young man’ and that he was ‘best known for Look Back in Anger, the original kitchen sink drama’.¹ Osborne remains an iconic figure, as...