Modern theatre: The explosion of new writing

Look Back in Anger, 1956

In 1956 the Royal Court Theatre became the home of George Devine's English Stage Company. Its third play was a new work by an unknown author: 'Look Back In Anger' by John Osborne. The production starred Mary Ure, Alan Bates, Helena Hughes and Kenneth Haigh as the central character, Jimmy Porter.

Reviews were mixed, but critics recognised the power of the writing. When the BBC broadcast an extract, the play achieved national fame. The 'angry young man', Jimmy Porter, raging against the modern world from a run-down flat in a Midlands town, voiced the frustrations of educated post war youth, whose dreams of a better life had not been realised.

During the 1950s other theatre companies were producing gritty studies of everyday life, but Osborne succeeded in capturing the mood of the times and creating a play which now seems a landmark in 20th century theatre.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, 1967

Tom Stoppard's play 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead' takes two minor characters from one of the most performed plays in British theatre, Hamlet, and puts them centre stage. The two of them, bit players in the action of Hamlet, have time on their hands. They hang about at the edges of the drama, occasionally caught up in the action, and forced to play out the destiny written for them.

Stoppard, born Tomas Straussler, of Czech origins, was not quite 30 when 'Rosencrantz' was produced by the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic in 1967, following the success of a student production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

This photograph from that production has Edward Petherbridge (left) and John Stride as the hapless pair caught up in the workings of fate.

Stoppard's prolific, subsequent output, including Jumpers, Travesties and Arcadia, established his international reputation as a writer of 'serious comedy'. The plays tackle philosophical and scientific ideas, but do so with verbal wit, visual humour and considerable linguistic complexity.

Entertaining Mr Sloane, 1964

Joe Orton's play was considered shocking when it first appeared at the New Arts Theatre Club, London in 1964. Often interpreted as a modern version of the Oedipus myth, its combination of murder, mother love, homosexuality and its bawdy language shocked even the liberal audiences of the 1960s.

This picture shows Sloane (Dudley Sutton) attacking Kath (Madge Ryan) when the tension caused by the conflicting demands on him become too much. After the death of Kemp (Peter Vaughan), Ed and Kath compromise and agree to share Sloane, each living with him for six months of the year.

The main actors in this production all went on to major television and film careers, Dudley Sutton as Tinker in 'Lovejoy', Peter Vaughan as Felix Hutchinson in 'Our Friends in the North', and Madge Ryan in 'London Belongs to Me'.

Paul, 2004

The stage set shows the remains of a house devastated by war and strewn with rubble. The main members of the cast were Kellie Bright as Mary Magdelene, Adam Godley as Paul, Paul Higgins as James, Lloyd Owen as Peter and Colin Tierney as Barnabas.

The Birthday Party, 2005

Sinead Matthews as Lulu, Henry Goldman as Goldberg, Paul Ritter as Stanley, Dame Eileen Aitkens as Meg, and Finbar Lynch as McCann (left to right).

Drunk Enough to Say I Love You, 2006

Drunk Enough to Say I Love You by Caryl Churchill (born 1938), Stephen Dillane as Sam and Ty Burrell as Jack, produced by The Royal Court Theatre, Jerwood Theatre, London, England, 20 November 2006

Burt Kwouk in Plenty, 1999

Originally performed at the National Theatre in 1978, David Hare's Plenty was revived by the Almeida Theatre Company at the Albery Theatre in 1999.

Pictured here is Burt Kwouk, one of Britain's best-known Chinese actors. Born in Manchester in 1930, but spending some of his childhood in Shanghai, he is most affectionately remembered for his portrayal of Cato, Inspector Clouseau's intrusive butler in the Pink Panther films. He has also played serious roles, in BBC TV's 'Tenko' and in his first film 'The Inn of the Sixth Happiness'. His first theatre role was in 'The Pleasure of His Company' at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. Here in Jonathan Kent's production of Hare's play, Kwouk is playing Aung, an oriental diplomat.

Cate Blanchett in Plenty, 1999

Originally performed at the National Theatre in 1978, David Hare's Plenty was revived by the Almeida Theatre Company at the Albery Theatre in 1999.

The central character is Susan Traherne, played by Cate Blanchett, whose life-shaping experiences start at the time when she worked for the Special Operations Executive during the War. Dropped behind enemy lines, she lives at a pitch that cannot be sustained within the disappointing post-war culture and politics of the 1950s. The play shows a disillusioned and angry woman over 20 years of her life. It was inspired, Hare said, by the statistic that 75% of women involved in such operations divorced during peacetime.

The play is not just about loss of youthful hope and a descent into madness, however, it is also about the powerfully dissenting character of Susan who is both vulnerable and antagonistic. Hare is considered - as this play confirms - one of the best modern writers of female roles.

Poster advertising The Norman Conquests

The play comprises three comedies, taking place at the same time, over the course of a weekend. Each one is set in a different part of the house: 'Table Manners' is set in the dining room, 'Living Together' is in the living room and 'Round and Round the Garden' is in the garden. After being performed in Scarborough, 'The Norman Conquests' had a season in London with a cast that included Tom Courtenay as Norman, Penelope Keith as Sarah, Felicity Kendal as Annie, Michael Gambon as Tom, Bridget Turner as Ruth and Mark Kingston as Reg.

Stuff Happens, 2004

A play about the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 starring Alex Jennings as George W Bush, Adjoa Andoh as Condoleezza Rice, Dermot Crowley as Donald Rumsfeld and Desmond Barrit as Dick Cheney.

Playing with Fire, 2005

Playing with Fire by David Edgar (born 1948), Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre, London, England, 20 September 2005

Blue Heart, 1997

Blue Heart was written by the prolific feminist and socialist playwright Caryl Churchill. Churchill's work examines perceptions and prejudice in class, gender and race. In order to do so, she experiments with theatrical form and style. For example in Cloud Nine, a play about the relationship between colonialism and the oppression of women, women play the husbands, men play the wives and a white actor plays the black manservant. This cross-casting helps highlight the artificiality of the social codes being portrayed.

Blue Heart was actually made up of two short plays, Heart's Desire and Blue Kettle. In Heart's Desire a couple wait excitedly for their daughter to arrive back from Australia. The scene keeps stopping and replaying itself with slight variations leading to increasingly surreal outcomes, such as the arrival of a group of terrorists, a busload of children or an ostrich instead of a daughter.