Description
Book SynopsisIt''s chaotic -- a bit of love, a bit of lust and there you are. We don''t ask for life, we have it thrust upon us. Written by Shelagh Delaney when she was 19,
A Taste of Honey is one of the great defining and taboo-breaking plays of the 1950s. When her mother, Helen, runs off with a car salesman, feisty teenager Jo takes up with a black sailor who promises to marry her before he heads for the seas, leaving her pregnant and alone. Art student Geoff moves in and assumes the role of surrogate parent until misguidedly, he sends for Helen and their unconventional setup unravels.
A Taste of Honey offers an explosive celebration of the vulnerabilities and strengths of the female spirit in a deprived world. Bursting with energy, this exhilarating and angry depiction of harsh, working-class life in post-war Salford is shot through with love and humour, and infused with jazz. The play was first presented by Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal Stratford, London, on 27
Trade ReviewA tough, tenacious play with an emotional bite that proves it is more than raucous comedy * Michael Billington, The Guardian *
Miss Delaney brings real people on to her stage, joking and flaring and scuffling and eventually, out of the zest for life she gives them, surviving * Kenneth Tynan, 1958 *
Tough, humorous ... exhilarating * The Times, 1958 *
A work of complete, exhilarating originality … a real escape from the middlebrow, middle-class vacuum of the West End * Lindsay Anderson, Encore, 1958 *
Table of ContentsForeword by Celia Brayfield The Play
