A bittersweet tale of love and longing, loneliness and betrayal. Read more …
A Taste of Honey is a British classic from the northwest of England. This drama of tenements, housing estates and bingo halls burst onto the stage in what was to become known as 'kitchen sink drama'.
Delaney tells the story of Jo, a seventeen-year-old lass from Salford, whose mother goes from one relationship to another with little regard for her daughter.
In need of love, Jo takes up with Jimmy, a black sailor. But after proposing marriage, he abandons her and goes back to sea, leaving her pregnant at a time when race and teenage pregnancy were taboo subjects.
Shelagh Delaney was only 18 when she finished A Taste of Honey, a remarkable achievement given that it addresses issues of class, gender, race and sexuality. When it opened in 1958 it revitalised British theatre and in 1961 was made into an award-winning film starring Rita Tushingham as Jo.
This production will be directed by Tony Cownie (Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, Educating Agnes).
Things were certainly not always, as the song of the play’s name suggested, ‘sweeter than wine’ but this production is worth tasting.
A Taste Of Honey has no tidy answers or solutions: but then neither does it raise any great questions. Instead, it shows that what unfolds in our own lives can be the most powerful and meaningful drama of all.
Littlewood said of Delaney at the time she decided to stage the play: “She is the antithesis of London’s Angry Young Men. She knows what she’s angry about.” Cownie and his cast give vent to that anger here with style, sympathy, and understanding.
With Delaney’s previously taboo subjects losing their impact, Cownie sometimes struggles to find resonance - although he braves up to the now-taboo casual racism of the text.
What seems most extraordinary of all, especially in Tony Cownie's production, is the vivid intensity of Delaney's two central characters. When Rebecca Ryan's Jo and Lucy Black as her mother, Helen, are on stage together, they are as ruthless – and as alive – as George and Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The cast rise ably to Cownie's approach with a series of heartfelt but refreshingly unsentimental performances.
Like the even spread of comedy and gravity, it’s the balance of the piece that’s most apparent.
Although it is finely acted and well designed (in Janet Bird’s part-naturalistic, part-impressionistic revolving set), one can’t help but feel that this production is hamstrung by a combination of the passage of time and a very British insistence on faithfulness to the text. Consequently, like the play’s disappointed survivors, the audience gets only a taste of what it craves.
If the whole show sometimes seems more like a homage than a complete reinterpretation – well, this play can take it, as it demonstrates a narrative grip, a power of language, and a deep sense of drama that still shows the way, to generations of new writers with more pretension, but far less courage and passion.
The production stands as a fine piece of work even if more mature theatre goers find themselves revisiting their youth rather than discovering a new angle.
Janet Bird’s elegant revolving set allows smooth transitions from scene to scene, but its cold, steel backdrop suggests that the characters are imprisoned in their respective fates. However, the play’s seemingly bleak conclusion – played with gripping desperation by Ryan – seems to hint that no matter how broken it is, life will go on.
It's hard to convey just how shocking all this was back in 1958, and the play is crying out for a radical re-invention. This isn't it, but through a winning set of performances, it remains a loving depiction of a play that paved the cobbled way for a grittier, wittier form of play for today.
The play itself is still resonant and engaging, although a kick into the 21st century could prevent its now-dated attitudes from being viewed through a mirror of obverse nostalgia.
A Taste of Honey
A Taste of Honey @ The Lyceum
Preview: A Taste of Honey, Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh
First Look: A Taste of Honey
Shameless star Rebecca Ryan brings A Taste of Honey to Edinburgh
Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh from Friday January 18, 2013, until Saturday February 9, 2013. More info: www.lyceum.org.uk
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