The Ascension of John Osborne

Extract

If one looks closely at the crotchety, constipated, hypercritical figure of Martin Luther in John Osborne's newest play, one is forcibly reminded of that fuming British malcontent, Jimmy Porter; a protestant who bitched against the Welfare State as vehemently as the theologian wrangled with the Pope. The similarities do not end there.

Despite the jump in time, the clerical context and the change of venue, the play is not (as has been charged here) a departure for Osborne. There is a clear link-up between Luther's sixteenth-century Germany and our time. In both, the sense of cosmic imminence is very strong. “The Last Judgement isn't to come. It's here and now,” says Luther, and the doomsday-mountain-squatters and the nuclear-psychotics echo his words.