Review: A Taste of Honey @ Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester

2:06pm Thursday 20th November 2008

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"I can't stand people who laugh at other people. They'd get a bigger laugh if they laughed at themselves," Shelagh Delaney’s passionate and witty play about the working classes has been revived once again and with a script full of rich lines like this it would be hard to get it wrong.

Half a century after its first production by Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop, director Jo Combe, brings the play back to home-turf in her bid to present the themes of teen sex, child neglect, loneliness and homosexuality.

Classic Manchester music from Morrissey to Oasis provides the underscore for the play and it is belted out by local DJ Jon Winstanley, and it does marry well with the text.

However, when the lights flash on the first floor balcony to show the DJ standing behind an advertising board-bopping to the music and waving at the actors down below, it is just cringeworthy.

Although the themes are no longer taboo Combes production still manages to take the audience on an emotional rollercoaster.

Sally Lindsay as the self-absorbed, irresponsible and blowzy, Helen, is promising and she very aptly depicts a woman who has no scruples and has nothing to offer her young daughter.

Jodie’s McNee’s portrayal of Jo is heart wrenching, very often on the brink of tears she tries to make the best of what she does have.

However, the show stealing performance is given by Adam Gillen as the gay arts student who offers to father Jo’s baby.

He makes you laugh with his mincing and screaming but he also makes you cry when he reluctantly leaves Jo when Helen finally comes back into her life.

Some of the themes in the play may seem outdated but the seediness and grime of the northern city of Salford in the late 50s are vividly brought to life and a Taste of Honey still manages to captivate audiences even with dream-like dance sequences.

The play is showing at the Royal Exchange Theatre in St Anne’s Square, Manchester, until December 6.

Call 0161 833 9833 for details or click the related link right for the Royal Exchange website.