Rufus Sewell as Martin Luther (Photo: Ivan Kyncl)

To paraphrase Alan Bennet, the National Theatre is going "back forty years" for a revival of John Osborne's 1961 play Luther on its main stage, the Olivier. In 1956 Osborne had set the London theatrical world alight with his first play Look Back in Anger with a rebellious hero, Jimmy Porter and so Osborne came to a famous religious rebel in Martin Luther (Rufus Sewell), the man who originated Protestantism and was responsible for the break with the Roman Catholic church at "The Reformation". The play is an historical based account of Luther's life from his early years as a postulant Augustinian monk, Brother Martin, through the debates with the church, his excommunication in 1520 to his death in 1546. It is a large work, over three hours long, and the National has given us a suitably large and weighty production.

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