Look Back in Anger In 1995 Greg Hersov directed a production at the Royal Exchange, Manchester with Michael Sheen as Jimmy Porter, Claire Skinner as Alison Porter, Dominic Rowan as Cliff Lewis and Hermione Norris as Helena Charles. Hersov directed a second production in 1999, again starring Michael Sheen, at the Royal National Theatre in London. In 1989 Osborne wrote a sequel to the play entitled "Déjàvu", which was first produced in 1992. "Déjàvu" depicted Jimmy Porter, now known as J.P., in middle age, living with his daughter Alison. He rants about the state of the country to his old friend Cliff, while his
Look Back in Anger best remembered for, though, are Jimmy's tirades. Some of these are directed against generalised British middle-class smugness in the post-atomic world. Many are directed against the female characters, a very distinct echo of Osborne's uneasiness with women, including his mother, Nellie Beatrice, whom he describes in his autobiography "A Better Class of Person" as "hypocritical, self-absorbed, calculating and indifferent". Madeline, the lost love Jimmy pines for, is based on Stella Linden, the older rep-company actress who first encouraged Osborne to write. After the first production in London, Osborne began a relationship with Mary Ure, who played Alison; he divorced his