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A Taste Of Honey. - Tour.
The play premiered in 1958 at Theatre Workshop, London.

Playwright - Shelagh Delaney.
Director - Guy Hollands.
Designer - Neil Warmington.
Lighting Designer - Paul Sorley.
Sound Designer - John Irvine.
Movement Director - Natasha Guinnessy.
Dialect Coach - Ros Steen.
Company - TAG Theatre Company Company Website.
Cast - here .
Venue - Citizens Theatre Glasgow.
Dates - 4 - 8 Oct at 7:30pm.
2005 Tour Dates and Times - here .
Seen to review at Citizens Theatre Glasgow on 5 Oct 2005.
Run Time - 2 hours 20 mins including 15 mins interval.
Reviewer - Thelma Good.

Equally taunt and brittle.
Smartly dressed Helen leans forward, her hands just above her knees, as she looks to one side at Jo who is sitting on a chair dress in a pair of mens' flannel pyjamas and a cardigan. Jo is looking away from her mother with her hand resting on her cheek.
A Taste Of Honey - TAG Theatre Company Production.
Helen - Jennifer Black and Jo - Samantha Young.
© Tim Morozzo 2005.
This play swamped several hit songs, a film and Rita Tushingham's career, it's an amazing piece of work written in 2 weeks when a friend dared working-class Shelagh Delaney to write a play better than the Rattigan they had both seen. What's even more striking viewing it 47 years later is how little it has aged. Under Guy Hollands' direction the cast bring out the humour and pathos of the play with three particularly notable performances in a more than able cast.

Jo is a young girl, she's still with her mother but it's a far from cosy arrangement. Dragged around in the wake of her mother's broken relationships, Jo's lived in far more rented rooms than her mother has celebrated Christmas with her. When they play opens they are moving into yet another set of rooms in Manchester and Jo's just about to leave school. A blunt girl who calls her mother Helen and sees through the ghastly Peter, who tracks her mother down, there's a strange, moving charm about her, in Samantha Young's performance. As Helen, Jennifer Black turns in an equally taunt, brittle performance, as both mother and daughter battle against each other and the world with the rhythms of the Manchester voice.

Keeping Jo company as she gets ready for an arrival is Geoffrey, a slightly older art student, who provides support and friendship, played with emotional depth by Martin O'Connor. As the boyfriend, Tunde Makinde, gives us a tender almost innocent young man we expect will return as the later Beatles lyrics, inspired by the play, promised. Alan Steele, the somewhat creepy Peter completes the cast directed with pace and flair by Hollands. Neil Warmington's set, of a semicircular back wall made of a variety doors placed two high and a circular sloped stage, lends itself to the characters' scripted direct appeals to the audience and the feeling of being offered a gift of a play. Paul Sorley's lighting also adds atmosphere.

A Taste Of Honey might have been Delaney's first play but the script has many humorous references to famous playwrights' plays while it overall suggest the 18 year old Delaney understood a lot about what makes plays endure. She also, by closing the play when she does, leaves us to hope all goes in a positive direction while uncomfortably realising that it might well not. When the play was first seen people tried to deny the veracity of it, what's noticeable nearly fifty years later is how many young girls still find themselves, children holding children.
© Thelma Good 5 Oct 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Cast -
Jo - Samantha Young, Helen - Jennifer Black, Geoffrey - Martin O'Connor, Peter - Alan Steele and The Boyfriend - Tunde Makinde.

2005 Tour Details of TAG Theatre's production of A Taste Of Honey .
Tour begins
4-8 Oct at &:30pm also Sat Mat at 2:30pm Glasgow The Citizens' Theatre 0141 429 0022.
10 Oct at 7:30pm Kilmarnock Palace Theatre 01563 554900.
12-15 Oct at 8pm Edinburgh Traverse Theatre 0131 228 1404.
18 Oct at 8pm Stirling macrobert 01786 466666.
19 Oct at 7:30pm Falkirk Town Hall 01324 506850.
20-21 Oct 7:30pm Aberdeen The Lemon Tree 01224 642230.
25 Oct at 8pm St Andrews, Byre Theatre, 01334 475000.
27 Oct at 1:30pm/7:30pm North Edinburgh Arts Centre, 0131 315 2151.
28 Oct at 7:45pm Cumbernauld Theatre, 01236 732887.
29 Oct at 7:30pm Paisley Arts Centre, 0141 887 1010.
31 Oct at 7:30pm Ellon Academy, 01358 720 715.
1 Nov at 7:30pm Aberlour Speyside High School, 01340 871 457.
2 Nov at 7:30pm Inverurie Academy, 01330 825 431.
3 Nov at 7:30pm Banchory Woodend Barn, 01330 825 431.
4 Nov at 7:30pm Elgin Town Hall, 01343 562 600.
5 Nov at 7:30pm Musselburgh Brunton Theatre 0131 665 2240.
9 Nov at 7:30pm Livingston Howden Park Centre 01506 433634.
11 Nov at 8pm near Penicuik Carlops Village Centre 01968 660388.
12 Nov at 8pm Melrose The Wynd Theatre 01896 820028.
Tour ends.

Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com

Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions.

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