Theatre / red rope theatre
Review: A Taste of Honey, Alma Tavern Theatre
This is the kind of play you might have studied at school: a piece that speaks of tensions caused by age, race, money and sexuality.
When a teenage Shelagh Delaney wrote this iconic domestic drama back in 1958, it was remarkable for putting two female, working-class Northerners in the spotlight. And there’s still more than enough in this production by young Bristol company Red Rope to get us thinking.
The action centres on the dysfunctional but interdependent relationship between 17-year-old Jo and her uncaring mother Helen, who have travelled the country and are now landed in a shabby flat in Salford. Rebecca Robson plays Helen with confidence and a whirling energy which she expends on men who fund her lifestyle. Downtrodden Jo, played by Bethan Croome in her professional debut, is surly and idealistic.
Helen abandons her daughter to marry caddish Peter (Elliott Chapman), amid some amusing barbs from Jo – who is beginning to grow up herself, as seen in her heady affair with Jimmie (Joey Akubeze).
In a pacier second act, we meet a newly pregnant Jo now flat-sharing with artist Geoff (an assuredby Zach Powell): but their domestic idyll is ruptured when Helen returns.
This iconic play is now a period piece, set in an era when children of racially different parents seemed shocking – and this production could do with a bit of updating, especially before the interval. But the cast handle some difficult material well, and there are laugh-out-loud moments. Plus, Smiths or Morrissey fans can enjoy spotting quotes from the play smuggled into their tracks…
A Taste of Honey continues at the Alma Tavern Theatre, Bristol until Saturday, October 29. For more info and to book tickets, visit www.almataverntheatre.co.uk/theatre/what-s-on.html
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