A Taste Of Honey - Nottingham

Reviewed By: Nottingham Evening Post Reporter

In her autobiography, Theatre Workshop's founder-director Joan Littlewood told how in 1958 a teenager from Salford sent her a draft of a play.

"One or two quirky phrases caught me eye," Littlewood recalled, before adding: "There wasn't much of a plot."

Littlewood & Co worked on Shelagh Delaney's words, protecting the quirky phrases and adding edge to the piece by transforming self-addressed chuntering into conspiratorial asides to be shared with the audience.

The one thing they could not fix was the plot.

It still doesn't amount to much, in spite of the extreme characters: slut runs off with fancy-man, leaving schoolgirl daughter to be seduced then abandoned by black sailor before she finds friendship with sensitive gay.

In spite of the best efforts of director Stuart Wood and his team, it also seem rather long. Fidgeting towards the end of a show that started nine minutes late, I lost count of how many times the mother - back in time for her granddaughter's arrival, is required to complain about the state of her old flat.

However, time has been kind to Delaney's characters, and in the gifted Samantha Robinson's wonderful performance as the pregnant Jo you get much of the resilience of latter-day child-mums' street wisdom and healthy babies, yet little experience or understanding of love.

In designer Liz Ashcroft's grotty Manchester bedsit we also get fine turns from Samantha Giles as the blowsy mum, her one-liners expertly timed; Chris Jack as the sailor; Bruno Langley as the house-proud gay companion; and Andonis Anthony as mum's dodgy spiv of a boyfriend - you'll see a few shows before anyone betters his drunk scene.

© Nottingham Evening Post, 20/6/06

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