A Taste of Honey review: ‘wonderful’ revival remains ‘vital and relevant’

Shelagh Delaney’s unflinching debut – which she wrote when she was still in her teens – was a “real jolt to the system” when it premiered at The Theatre Royal, Stratford, in 1958, said Chris Bartlett in The Stage.

It tells the story of Jo, a white teenager from Salford who has a troubled relationship with her alcoholic mother, is left pregnant as a result of an affair with a black sailor, and befriends a gay artist, with whom she forms an unconventional family. Written nine years before homosexual acts were decriminalised, it “opened theatregoers’ eyes to a hitherto unexplored side of British society”. There is a risk that a “kitchen-sink” drama of that era will no longer seem “vital and relevant” to modern audiences. But Emma Baggott’s “period-perfect” production dispels such concerns. It nails the “horribly dysfunctional” mother-daughter relationship at the play’s core, and leans into its “dreamy magic realism” to great effect.

“A Taste of Honey” is a “brilliantly written, beautifully structured work of theatre, as worthy of revival as the socially conscious dramas of Ibsen”, said Mark Brown in The Daily Telegraph. And its “passion and pathos” are fully captured here by “a universally excellent cast”. As the mother, Jill Halfpenny is “suitably monstrous, but with an intelligent, underlying and brittle fragility”; and there are also “fine performances” from Obadiah as the sailor, Jimmie, and David Moorst as Geoffrey, Jo’s friend.

Most impressive of all, though, said Clive Davis in The Times is Rowan Robinson as Jo – “headstrong, wayward and hard to love”. Herself from Salford, and making her professional stage debut, Robinson delivers a remarkably mature performance as the “mercurial” young woman “caught between juvenile dreams and adult realities”. 

The evening has some flaws, said Matt Barton on What’s on Stage. The script becomes “declarative” at points; the whole thing could do with a trim; and I wasn’t convinced by the way the play is given an “empowering and galvanising” end note: the characters, after all, only get a taste of a better life. Still, this is for the most part a “wonderful” revival that makes Delaney’s play “glow” anew.

Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Until 13 April Running time: 2hrs 50mins