WHEN John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger first came to the stage it was widely reviled by the critics.

Now, 55 years after its first performance, it is regarded as one of the most important plays in English literature.

Set in a run-down flat, it examines the marriage of Alison and Jimmy Porter, she the daughter of a well-to-do military family, he fiercely proud of his working class roots.

As they goad and bicker, their friends Cliff and Helena orbit around them.

When it first came out the play was seen as a revolutionary step away from drawing room dramas and bedroom farces.

The play has been reanimated by Devon-based Creative Cow Theatre Company and is touring a number of Dorset venues this week.

Katherine Senior, who plays the part of Alison Porter, grew up in Bournemouth and cut her dramatic teeth in several of this county’s theatres and amateur companies.

She set up Creative Cow Theatre Company four years ago and many of the plays they present are from the 1960s.

She said: “The play is as powerful now as when it came out. When you read it, it is quite a dense play but when you put it on the stage in rehearsals it just lifts out of the book and you realise just how much power it has.

“It isn’t stuck in any one time – there are references to the period, but there always are in every play you do. But it still works so well because it is fundamentally about relationships and how people cope with it and the frustrations and everything.

“When we do performances, so many people say to me ‘oh, my ex-husband was just like that’, or ‘I know someone just like that’. We realised when we were in rehearsals that we all have a bit of Jimmy Porter in us.”

Katherine shares the stage with Piers Wehner as Jimmy Porter, Jonathan Parish as Jimmy’s gentle welsh friend Cliff Lewis, Lizzy Dive as Alison’s friend Helena Charles and Jack Hulland as Alison’s upper class and bemused father Colonel Redfern.

Katherine said: “It is a great cast and we have all really got into the play.

“Piers is very good as Jimmy and is used to playing baddies. He had the part of Jude in The Archers for a time and used to get hate mail.”

Look Back in Anger is at Shaftesbury Arts Centre on June 10 (call 01747 854321), the marine Theatre in Lyme Regis the following night (call 01297 442138) and at Lighthouse in Poole from Thursday, June 16 to Saturday 18 (call 0844 406 8666).

All performances are at 7.30pm and there is a 2.30pm matinee on the Saturday at Lighthouse.