Pinter and Osborne?

Began to do publicity for my new edition of two unknown, previously unpublished plays by John Osborne.

Despite Look Back in Anger being commonly assumed to be Osborne’s overnight breakthrough debut, he had in fact written seven plays by 1956, two of which –The Devil Inside Him and Personal Enemy - had been previously produced. Although Osborne had thought the plays lost –a supposition reiterated by his official biographer John Heilpern in 2006, I found both texts in the archives of the Lord Chamberlain in the British Library as part of research for our Theatre Archive Project Golden Generation exhibition last year. Oberon are publishing the two texts, with an extended introduction setting the plays in context, on June 20, and the book also includes a foreword by playwright Peter Nichols. Peter acted with Osborne in 1953 in Frinton, and he relates how his intervention saved Osborne from being let go by the company manager. Nichols and Osborne were a number of New Wave writers-in-waiting who served apprenticeships treading the boards in the early 1950s. I have read that Harold Pinter – another rep actor at this time – also acted with Osborne, but I can’t find much evidence in any of the biographies. If anyone has any information on when they might have crossed paths, I’d love to know.

Comments

[Acting classes North Hollywood]

I don't know much about Osborne but I think he's a great playwright. To know that maybe Pinter and Osborne worked together, wow, that's a great research. I never thought Harold Pinter was a rep actor that time. I don't have any information if they have have crossed paths, but if i found something, i'm glad to share it with you. Thanks.

-peter