'Miss Delaney brings real people on to her stage... she is busy
recording the wonder of life as she lives it' Kenneth Tynan, Observer
A Taste of Honey became a sensational theatrical success when first
produced in London by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in 1958. Now
established as a modern classic, this comic and poignant play, by a then
nineteen-year-old working-class Lancashire girl, was praised at its
London premiere by Graham Greene as having 'all the freshness of Mr
Osborne's Look Back in Anger and a greater maturity.' It was made into
a highly acclaimed film in 1962.
The play is about the adolescent Jo and her relationship with her
irresponsible mum, Helen, the Nigerian sailor who leaves Jo pregnant and
Geoffrey, the homosexual art student who moves in to help Jo with the
baby. It is also about Jo's unshakeable optimism throughout her trials.
This story of a mother and daughter relationship (imitated in many other
modern British plays since), set in working-class Manchester, continues
to engage new generations of audiences.