A Taste of Honey @ The Lyceum

Written by an 18 year old, A Taste of Honey introduced a fresh new voice to the British stage, challenging the lazy assumptions of class prejudice and refusing any easy answers to complex social questions. Sounding more like the latest new playwright than a British classic, A Taste of Honey is revived at The Lyceum under the direction of Tony Cownie with an added poignancy due to author Shelagh Delaney's death last year. 

“When A Taste of Honey opened in 1958 it revitalised British Theatre,” says Cownie.  “It inspired a new generation of writers and performers to tell their own stories in their own words.” Alongside the other angry young authors, who defined the ‘kitchen sink’ genre of social realism – still seen in the films of Ken Loach – Delaney demonstrated that theatre need not be a bland, hollow entertainment.

Unfortunately, as Cownie suggests, the agenda is still relevant today. “The voiceless were given a voice,” he continues. “Racism, sexism, homophobia and the stigma of unmarried mothers given a platform for real hands-on debate.” The importance of political drama has become obvious as the ConDem government become more brazen in their austerity measures, and the disenfranchised are further disadvantaged.

“The dramas of the tenements, housing estates and bingo halls, social depravation and the experience of the forgotten backbone of our society were suddenly taking centre stage,” says Cownie. A Taste of Honey is no period piece, but ready to stand alongside the increasingly engaged theatre of Scotland's contemporary angry young playwrights. [Gareth K. Vile]