04 March 2025

A taste of honey

 


Review by Paul Towers, 3/3/25

A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney

Directed by Russell Hughes

Produced by Leicester Drama Society

At The Little Theatre til Saturday 8th March 2025

Shelagh Delaney’s 1958 play set in poverty stricken Salford highlighted issues of class, race, age of sexual consent, gender, sexual orientation and illegitimacy at the time. Not a huge lot has changed in the interim.

Jo (Celester Walton), a teenager, is dragged into yet another unsuitable lodging by her wayward mother, Helen (Holly Matusiewicz). It suddenly dawns on Jo that her mother is close to being a prostitute, living off the handouts of her various lovers. Their relationship is tempestuous, to say the least, partly due to Helen’s drinking. Her latest boyfriend’s sudden proposal of marriage throws their relationship askew. Meanwhile Jo is being courted by a black ship’s cook, Jimmy (Abdullah Henly) who ultimately gets her pregnant. When Helen waltzes off to get married to Peter (Freddie Dobrijevic) Jo is left alone to cope with her pregnancy. It is at this point that Geoff (Thom Jones) enters her life. A lonely gay lad from art college the two form a mutually beneficial friendship.

As always with LDS productions the acting is superb and the set is imaginative. Special mention has to go to Holly Matusiewicz’s Helen who has to constantly switch moods as the drink takes hold.

A Taste Of Honey is at The Little Theatre until Saturday 8th March

Pics: Jenny Harding

https://thelittletheatre.co.uk/

https://ptheatre.blogspot.com/ 






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