A Taste Of Honey - Darlington

Reviewed By: Sue Heath

Shelagh Delaney wrote this play when she was only 18, her first attempt at writing for the theatre. First performed in 1958 it was considered shockingly modern, dealing as it does with inter-racial relationships, illegitimate pregnancy and homosexuality.

In those days it was illegal for a man to have sex with another man, and gays remained in the closet.

But the dialogue is still fresh and the characters are as riveting now as they were in 1961 when Rita Tushingham and Dora Bryan starred in the film version.

The play tells Jo's story as she moves from world-weary schoolgirl to resigned mum-tobe, stuck in her Salford bedsit. Dragged from pillar to post by her mum, who wears white shoes with black stockings and dyes her hair an alarming shade of red, Jo is abandoned at Christmas in favour of mum's latest toyboy.

She turns for comfort to Jimmy, a black sailor and the only person to show her any affection, and the inevitable happens. Enter Geoffrey, who has been thrown out of his lodgings because his landlady discovered he's gay. He becomes Jo's 'big sister' and they find a kind of happiness until Jo's mother returns with a black eye and a burst of motherly concern.

The play is beautifully acted; Samantha Robinson as Jo touching your heart with her naive defiance, Samantha Giles and Andonis Anthony as mum and her ghastly drunken boyfriend and Bruno Langley's Geoffrey, tentatively offering Jo his whole life and getting demolished by her mum.

It's an insight into the way we were a relatively short time ago. I was enthralled.

© The Northern Echo, 23/5/06

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