Honey doesn't leave sour taste

10 April 2012

Despite this slightly tentative production, Shelagh Delaney?s forty four year old drama feels as if it had been written yesterday. The tale of a Salford lass born to a single mum on the game has all the themes that still grab headlines today.

The young heroine, Jo, settles down with a gay art student after getting pregnant by a young black sailor. She insists on a home birth, does pelvic floor exercises and prefers her gay friend?s pasta to her mother?s northern stodge. But most invigorating of all is the language from the then 18-year-old Delaney, which flows as free and as rank as Salford?s river Irwell. From a modern perspective, there are problems with the play, in particular with the black and gay characters. The black sailor from Cardiff is favourably represented, but has only a tiny role before he is abandoned to a love 'em and leave 'em stereotype.

Equally the gay man abused as "apansified little freak" suffers in silence and never comes out of the closet. In failing to develop these characters? inner lives, the play remains a document of its times. But in its candid rendition of the mother-daughter slanging matches, the drama is as abrasively modern as it ever was.

Above all, it's the language that continues to blaze. The tarted-up mother is denounced by her daughter as being "dressed up like the botanical gardens" and her mother bitterly complains "why can't you learn from mymistakes?"

John Dove's production dilutes some of this verbal slurry, butis nothing if not consistent and lucid. Likewise, Rodney Ford's design isnot what one character calls "the dirtiest place I?ve ever seen", butdescriptions of the slaughterhouse, gasworks and river "the colour of lead"beyond the window do much to colour this grim northern slum. What?s more, the actors clearly find the Delaney?s characters compelling.Richard Dax relishes the role of the one-eyed sleazy Salford playboy, MarkAsante makes a bear-like black sailor (despite skipping the Welsh accent)and Ben Fox is a loveable-loser as the down-trodden gay friend. SallyEdwards finds redeeming features in the foul-mouthed Mother carping at herdaughter and drinking herself into the comfort of self delusion. JustineKoos as that tomboy heroine, Jo, gives as good as she gets, badgering,hectoring and jibing for attention. But Koos also manages to imbue hersnarling part with a sense of pathos, innocence and vulnerability. Betweenthem they find enough bitter comedy to sweeten this very sour Taste OfHoney.

Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch, until Saturday 11 May. Box office: 01708 443 333.

A Taste of Honey

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