The legacy of honey

March 24, 2015 by Ray Morgan

The legacy of honey

On Saturday I went to see a performance of A Taste of Honey at the Palace Theatre. It was serendipitous as I'd only watched an Artsnight documentary about Shelagh Delaney the week before discovering it was on at the Palace. I'd also studied it for GCSE drama, and love how raw and real this play is. If you've never seen the play, or the film, or read it, you should. It was one of the first 'kitchen sink' dramas of the 50s/60s, and inspired a generation of playwrights.

What I love about the legacy of this play is that it also inspired people like Tony Warren, the creator of Coronation Street. In fact, Morrissey used images of Delaney for some of The Smiths' album covers, and borrowed lines from A Taste of Honey in his lyrics.

Talking of Corrie, people often get a bit sniffy about Coronation Street. Yes, it's a soap, but it's built on brilliant foundations inspired by Delaney's writing, with the kind of observational humour that I absolutely love. When I was studying Creative Writing at university, one of the first things we were taught was to listen to what people say in the street, or on buses, or in queues, because listening to funny overheard quotes and applying it to fiction is what makes a great writer.

The dialogue in A Taste of Honey was abundant in observational humour. The subject matter is depressing: poverty, lost love, unhappy relationships, unwanted pregnancy, racism and homophobia (quite the list!), but it was peppered with comedy which is what makes it so great. It would have been a dour two hours of sitting through misery, but the comedy lifted it. It was also a testament to the actors - from local group The Lindisfarne Players - that they could lift us as the audience too.

It also made me think how important it is to support local arts groups. I'll admit, I don't go to the theatre enough, but for £12 on a Saturday afternoon (sandwiched between lunch and dinner) it felt great to escape for a couple of hours. I highly recommend getting on the mailing list for our local theatres and arts groups and getting out there. You never know what gems you might find.

Find out more about the Lindisfarne Players and their upcoming productions at www.facebook.com/LindisfarnePlayers