A Taste of Honey was first performed in 1958. It was set in Manchester.
A TASTE OF HONEY. A Taste of Honey was first performed in 1958. It was set in Manchester. Manchester at that time was an industrial town. There were lots of working class people like there is today as well as poverty. The play is about a mother and daughter relationship, Helen and Jo, their problems and their attempts to cope with life. The play is controversial because Helen is a semi-whore which at that time was maybe wasn't unusual, but wasn't acceptable. She is divorced and a single parent, according to statistics in 1958 1 in 100 marriages ends in divorce. It was difficult to get divorced and divorce was frowned upon. In the 1950's single parents were a 'tiny' minority of the population because divorce at that time was uncommon. Helen had Jo at a young age. The community would of thought bad about Helen. Conversation between Helen is like verbal sparring. Helen is very self-centred. Jo becomes increasing central to action. Helen is a whore, she goes out for sex in return for money. She is thoughtless, poor and unromantic. We can tell this from act 1 scene 1 because she only thinks about herself, she is need of money and she doesn't marry for romance, but for money. This shows she is poor and unromantic. Jo is argumentative, mature and responsible at times She is arrogant, she can get angry, she has feelings. Jo is also stubborn, poor, serious, negative, insecure and
‘A Taste of Honey’
Essay Chantal Chitayi 'A Taste of Honey' Act two, scene one is an important part of the play because Jo is near the end of her pregnancy and Helen comes back to visit her but only because Geoff had asked her too. Previously in the play Helen had married Peter and had gone to live with him, Jo got engaged to a black boy in the Navy, she became pregnant but he didn't come back after going away with the Navy. Jo didn't have a very good relationship with her mother and they had moved about a lot as Helen ran every time she couldn't pay the rent. Jo met Geoff who is a homosexual. He hasn't had sexual relations with a man but he knows he is gay because he has had liaisons with other men. Jo has left school and was going to work in a pub part-time. The play is 'A Taste of Honey' and I am doing part of Act two scene one where Jo, Helen and Geoff are the main characters. This play is mainly set in Jo and Helen's flat where the time is around the 1950's. Helen and Jo weren't very well off so the flat is in a poor condition. It is dirty and there is a lot of dust. The house looks like it is uncared for because clothes are on the floor and the bed isn't made. It is a comfortless flat. If I was in the audience I would see the settee in the middle of the flat with Geoff's bedding on it, to the left of the stage would be Jo's unmade bed it might have some
How effective is the opening scene as an introduction to the whole of the play? The first scene of the play "A taste of Honey" which also can be written as A taste of Happiness is a very good introduction
"A taste of honey" How effective is the opening scene as an introduction to the whole of the play? The first scene of the play "A taste of Honey" which also can be written as A taste of Happiness is a very good introduction 2 the play as it gives the reader an idea of what the main characters are seeking by describing Helen and Jo's flat as "comfortless" and Jo even says "I don't like it". The first scene is very successful in introducing the main two characters and has set a tone that Jo is annoyed with the flat she has moved into with her mum "And I don't like it". Then Helen goes onto say that she can't afford a better house/flat because the one she is in now is all she can afford "It's all I can afford". The flat is "comfortless" and is in Manchester, life in those days for Helen and Jo was quite depressing, morbid and hard to make money as there was not a lot of jobs around especially for a "semi-whore". Helen and Jo are looking for a "Taste of Honey" by trying to find a better job for Helen and a job for Jo so they can make money and get somewhere better to live. The audiences that would of watched this play were used to seeing more elite sets on stage and would of probably been gob-smacked to of seen a set like this one. What Shelagh Delaney was trying to do with this play and the characters in it was to show the (posh) audience how life would have been in the past
How does Shelagh Delaney establish the relationship of the main characters for the audience in Act 1 Scene 1 of ‘A Taste of Honey’?
David O'Neill 10.2 Taste of honey Essay How does Shelagh Delaney establish the relationship of the main characters for the audience in Act 1 Scene 1 of 'A Taste of Honey'? The first scene is probably the most important scene of all, as it tells us about the nature of the characters and their attitudes. The first words of the play that are stage directions play a big part. The quote " the stage represents a comfortless flat . . . . . the street outside. Jazz music" this tell us about the time in which they lived which was post war Britain from the jazz music. Jazz music is associated with the blues that was music about being down on your luck which was popular at these times. Mentioning that they lived in Manchester also gave a feeling of their surroundings. In Manchester at this time of the play there would have been few people of other ethnic origins as opposed to 1 in 20 British citizens being African, Asian or Caribbean origin in the 1990s. Also in that day and age it was only a tiny minority of the population on which were single parents. This would be the most important scene because it gave us an idea of what Helen and Jo are like. It tells us what there attitudes are and what sort of relationship they have. Helen reacts differently to Helen at the first impressions of the flat. While Helen is making the flat sounding a lot better than it actually is to make her feel
A Taste of Honey
A Taste of Honey This essay is about a young woman called Jo. Jo has a mother known as Helen and her boyfriend peter; Jo also has a boyfriend called Boy and a close friend called Geoff who is gay. Jo is pregnant with her boyfriend Boy, Boy is a black sailor, and it was common in those days for sailors to have girlfriends for a short while and then leave them as they go on to other places, and as Jo says "He's gone away. He maybe back in six months, but then again, he may..." here she gave the impression that he may not be back. In this case he left her pregnant as well which just adds to Jo's problems. At the beginning of the play all Jo could think about is the condition of the flat and Jo's first words were "And I don't like it" as Helen said, "Well this is the place." At the beginning their opinions of the flat are very different as Helen tries to see the better side as Jo just keeps on criticising the flat, which in way brings them closer together rather than further apart, they just need to respect each other more. Jo is really serious about her thoughts of the flat whereas Helen is trying to look at the good side although she knows its horrible and even gives into Jo later and says, "It is a bit of a mess isn't it." The author uses Helens cold to revel Helens character by the words that she uses like "Its running like a tap" she says about her nose. Both characters rely
Form and Structure
FORM AND STRUCTURE `A Taste of Honey' is in two acts, both containing two scenes, and set in two flats. The play could be described as episodic, due to the fact that within the same situation by using a blackout, the play has moved on months from the previous scene (i.e. Jo's pregnancy in Act II). Delaney has used a Brechtian device with using episodes to show different aspects of the characters lives, and how they fit together in the plot. The structure of the play is fairly basic as it follows the Brechtian influence of a Linear plot(beginning, middle, end) i.e. the play is easy to follow which symbolises the characters lives - monotonous and basically the same situations arising from one day to the next. However, a element of Stanislavski is used as the technique of naturalistic/realistic drama (soap opera effect) is apparent. `A Taste of Honey' follows the life of a young girl call Jo over the period of approximately 12 - 18 months. It is realistic in the sense that it portrays how working class people live and the struggles they have to endure, which would therefore allow the audience to relate to this and affect them emotionally. This relates to Stanislavski's aim of wanting to depict the working class and show the rich and privileged how they live (realities of society). This idea is also indicated throughout the outcome of the play - the initial characters in the
When Shelagh Delaney began working on A Taste of Honey, she intended it to be a novel; but instead, it became a very famous play
A Taste of Honey When Shelagh Delaney began working on A Taste of Honey, she intended it to be a novel; but instead, it became a very famous stroy, Delaney was disgusted at was being shown in the plays currently being produced for the stage and decided to rework her novel into a play. It took her two weeks. A Taste of Honey opened at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East in London on May 27, 1958. On February 10, 1959, Delaney's play moved to Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End, and on October 4, 1960, the play opened on Broadway at New York City's Lyceum Theatre. Delaney's play opened to mixed reviews. In many cases, her characters were praised for their honest, realistic voices. The play was also singled out for its accurate depictions of working class lives. There was also concern that too much praise for the play's nineteen-year-old author would make it difficult for her to ever create another hit play, the theory being that early success might prove so intimidating that she could never live up to her first accomplishment. In a sense, this is what happened, since Delaney never wrote another play that achieved the success of A Taste of Honey. However, this first play did earn several awards, including the Charles Henry Foyle New Play award in 1958 and the New York Drama Critics Award in 1961. The film version won the British Academy Award for best picture in 1961 and a
Evaluation - 'A Taste of Honey' by Shelagh Delaney
Evaluation - 'A Taste of Honey' We began looking at the play 'A Taste of Honey' by Shelagh Delaney in a naturalistic style. During the first few workshops, we were exposed to the set, the characters, their relationship, their moods and their everyday lives. We acknowledged the fact the Helen and Jo were mother and daughter but didn't always get on and there always seemed to be an essence of competition in their relationship, more like a power struggle. This power struggle can be seen visibly through the text and the way the play is written. We used Tableaux to show moods and relationships established in the first few pages. This gave me a strong, in depth, realistic perspective to the play. When we used out facial expressions and gestures to create a frozen picture, it really helped us to gain an insight into Helen and Jo's relationship. I think that tableau is one of the most effective skills used in drama today. It creates a visual, still picture that relates to a part of the script. I then went on to use Tableau a lot more when studying 'A Taste of Honey' due to the fact that I thought this was very effective and gave a clear understanding and justification of relationships and moods to the audience. Tableau was such an effective skill that I went on to discover new ways of conveying information when using Tableau. Through Tableau I was able to incorporate an essence of
‘A taste of honey’ and ‘My mother said I never should’.
The two drama texts we have studied are 'A taste of honey' and 'My mother said I never should'. These two texts have similar themes and issues. They both deal with growing up, single parenthood, leaving home, friendship, family relationships including conflict between daughters, parents and the attitude toward different class behaviour. In this essay I shall be exploring the similarities and differences between the two texts. I shall start with an analysis of 'A taste of honey' and compare this with 'my mother said I never should'. 'A taste of honey' is set in the 1960's in a scrubby little worn-down flat. It deals with the life of a young girl called Jo and her mother called Helen. In this drama text, Jo and Geof do not get on well with Helen. They are in conflict with each other all the time. We know this because the text illustrates lots of aggressive language like "oh, go to hell". Helen has a boyfriend called peter she leaves Jo to live with him, but when she finds out that Jo is pregnant she returns to the flat. When she returns she finds that Jo is living with a young man called Geof. He is a homosexual and peter is quite homophobic so he insults him constantly. We know this because he calls him a pansy. Jo is similar to Jackie in 'My mother said I never should' because they are both young single mothers that have dropped out of college however, they are slightly
Geof is the only genuine caring character in the play; the others are totally selfish and self centred. Discuss this statement. From the beginning of the play we can see Jo is the main character, she is highly independent and self reliant this
Geof is the only genuine caring character in the play; the others are totally selfish and self centred. Discuss this statement. From the beginning of the play we can see Jo is the main character, she is highly independent and self reliant this is obvious from one of the opening pages were Jo's mum Helen states 'children owe their parents these little attentions' to which Jo replies with 'I don't owe you a thing.' This shows Jo sees her relationship with her mother as strained, she feels she has brought herself up and not really had her mother their to support her. She has learnt to rely on herself and not trust her mother. When Jo becomes pregnant with a black boy form the navy, who leaves her pregnant Jo reacts badly because she is so independent and used to looking after herself. Geof (Jo's gay friend) offers her a shoulder to turn to and she turns on him 'I'm not planning big plans for this baby or dreaming big dreams. You Know what happens when you do things like that. The baby will be born dead or daft!' She feels she has let herself down and been promiscuous, however the sailor boy was offering her marriage and love before he left, she felt in a safe relationship and that was why she slept with him. But Jo just sees that she's made the same mistakes her mother made when she had her at a young age. Most expectant mothers don't have this negative attitude towards their