Déjàvu

Déjàvu (1992) is a stage play by John Osborne. It was Osborne's final work for the theatre, the failure of which on the stage made him decide to give up play-writing. The play is a sequel to Osborne's first successful play, Look Back in Anger (1956); it portrays the life and thoughts of the central character from the earlier play, Jimmy Porter (referred to as J.P.), in middle age.

Creation

Osborne had been thinking about a sequel to Look Back in Anger for some years, and had been working on a draft of the play since 1987 when he started jotting down ideas and plotting it out. The play itself was written over several months in from December 1988 to April 1989. He tried out several titles, but decided on Déjàvu, "deliberately misspelt", according to John Heilpern, as a single word (rather than the correct "Déjà vu").

Production difficulties

The play was sent to Richard Eyre at the Royal National Theatre who rejected it, suggesting that it would work best as a "monologue performed prior to a performance of LOOK BACK IN ANGER".Tony Richardson, the original director of Look Back in Anger, was enthusiastic, but it was again turned down by Max Stafford-Clark at the Royal Court Theatre. Several readers took the view that it was much too long, and so should be cut.Stephen Daldry thought that Osborne would have been better advised to do a one-man show, performing Porter's rants in the play himself. Osborne approached various actors and directors but was unable to develop the production, at one point writing a bitter letter to The Times about his problems. Peter O'Toole agreed to play the main role, but dropped out after conflicts with Osborne over proposed cuts to the script. John Standing also dropped out after an argument with Osborne. Eventually Peter Egan took the role of Porter, and the play was produced in May 1992 at the Thorndike Theatre directed by Tony Palmer.