Concetti Chiave
- Post-war intellectuals aimed to morally and politically rebuild their countries, aware of humanity's destructive potential.
- Britain experienced a shift from prosperity to economic depression, influencing social dissatisfaction and artistic expression.
- The Angry Young Men movement, known for "drama of commitment," critiqued the British establishment without firm political ties.
- Key figures like Osborne and Wesker voiced disorganization and frustration in Britain through their works.
- While not altering traditional play structures, the Angry Young Men introduced new themes into existing dramatic forms.
After the war many intellectuals felt that they were being called on to reconstruct their country, from both a moral and a political point of view. At the same time the war had generated a new awareness of man’s propensity to evil and a new conscience of the destructive potential of scientific knowledge.
Britain saw the end of an era of pride, privilege and easy prosperity and the beginning of economic depression: from 1950s onwards a general sense of dissatisfaction established social trends characterized the works of various artists in Britain.
Angry Young Men trend has been also defines “drama of commitment” and of “social protest”.
It includes authors such as Osborne and Wesker, and it takes its name from the title of a Osborne’s play, “Look back in Anger”.
Though they were labeled as mouthpieces of left-wing ideologies, they were not politically committed.
What they really expressed was a sense of general disorganization, anxiety, frustration, loss of direction and inarticulate rage at the general condition of Britain and the world.
The Angry Young Men’s theatre didn’t give birth to any really significant change in the structure of the traditional play: it rather injected new content into the old dramatic conventions.
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