In "A Taste of Honey" Shelagh Delaney presents Jo as a young woman looking for security and love. Compare the relationships she has with Helen, her boyfriend and Geoff. To what extent does she find security and love with each?

"A TASTE OF HONEY" In "A Taste of Honey" Shelagh Delaney presents Jo as a young woman looking for security and love. Compare the relationships she has with Helen, her boyfriend and Geoff. To what extent does she find security and love with each? Shelagh Delaney the writer of the play "A Taste of Honey" was born on November 25th 1939 in Salford, England. It was in school when she saw her first play, an amateur performance of Shakespeare's "Othello". She was only twelve at the time, and the play made a great impression on her. When she was seventeen, she began writing "A Taste of Honey" as a novel but later realised that it would be better as a play so it was first performed in 1958, accepted by Joan Littlewood, a famous director of the Political Theatre who strongly believed that plays should be about ordinary people. "A Taste of Honey" is mainly about a young working class girl who refuses to conform to her dreary surroundings and way of life. When the play was introduced, it was rare to find any of the situations portrayed in any other plays as the circumstances of each of the characters in the play were polemic and unaccepted by a neglectful society. Keeping up the appearances was an important factor in life, and at the time public disgrace was a horrendous situation to be involved in., so it almost became a day to day struggle to keep others satisfied with a

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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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

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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From dependence to independence. To what degree does Jo mature and become less dependant on others?

From dependence to independence. To what degree does Jo mature and become less dependant on others? "A Taste Of Honey" is a twentieth century play set in the 1950s. It is known as a "kitchen-sink" drama and was written by Shelagh Delaney at the age of 18 and was first performed in May 1958. A "kitchen-sink" drama originated in the literature in the 1950s and 1960s. Its aim is to create a true picture of the hard life and troubles of the working class life. In "A Taste Of Honey" the two main characters are always falling out with each other and the people around them. The conditions they live in are cramped and poor in bedsits or flats. An example of a "kitchen-sink" drama is in "Look Back In Anger" by John Osborne and "Saturday Night And Sunday Morning" by Alan Sillitoe. Plays and dramas in the fifties were performed for the middle and upper classes but then came the debut "kitchen-sink" drama; "Look Back In Anger", which was aimed at the working class. A "kitchen-sink" drama play uses everyday common language to reflect the lives of the working class people portrayed. "A Taste Of Honey" is set in Salford, Manchester. It is about the life and relationship between a young girl, Jo, and her mother, Helen. They move around a lot, and have just moved into a shabby one-bedroomed flat in Salford. Helen is a semi-whore who lives off money which has been given to her by her men

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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A Taste of Honey: From dependence to independence.

A Taste of Honey: From dependence to independence 'A Taste of Honey' was written by Shelagh Delaney when she was 18, and published in 1958. Four years later, in 1962, it was turned into a film. It shows life as it really was for many people in and around the slums of Salford, near Manchester, living with the poor housing and lack of opportunity. The characters are genuine; you can really believe in them. Some of the characters were totally different from the usual 'straight-laced' characters that were so common in the kitchen-sink dramas that were around at the time. For instance, a homosexual, a young pregnant unmarried girl, a semi-whore mother and a black sailor all living in the same areas, and some even living in the same houses as each other. This was completely different from the 'safe' plays of the time. There is hope in the play; the characters, especially Jo, are able to overcome their fears and problems and carry on with their lives. The characters in a taste of honey speak like typical working class people in the north of England. There are not many examples of regional dialect, but there are a few, such as when Helen says, 'Eee, there's a terrible draught,' showing that Helen is a resident of Lancashire. The characters drop letters, making them sound more common. There are many examples of this, including Jo saying, 'You packed 'em,' and Helen saying, 'Turn 'em

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Shelagh Delaney's 'A Taste of Honey' .

C20 DRAMA COURSEWORK 'A TASTE OF HONEY' By Shelagh Delaney 'A Taste of Honey' was first produced in 1958 and shocked audiences. What aspects of the play do you think would have been controversial at the time? Compare the play with the more recent TV version, focusing on what you find shocking about its impact today. How does the social context in which a play is seen affect audience reaction? 'A Taste of Honey' was first produced in 1958 and it shocked its audiences. Today, it is still viewed as a controversial play, but with the many changes in society over the past 40 years, it is different issues that disturb modern viewers. 'A Taste of Honey' is a play about controversial issues, and was also part of a controversial movement in theatre, known as the 'Angry Young Man'. This movement was headed by John Osborne, whose play 'Look Back in Anger' had an inestimable impact on British theatre. Theatre had recently been a form of middle-class entertainment with few hard-hitting and true to life storylines - this was completely changed with the rise of the 'Angry Young Man' movement. The main characters of these plays shared certain rebellious and critical attitudes toward society. The writer of 'A Taste of Honey', Shelagh Delaney, was also a part of this movement, and her impactful and honest play caused great discussion amongst audiences across the country. The new attitudes

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  • Level: GCSE
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In writing

In writing "A Taste of Honey", what impact did Shelagh Delaney hope to have upon her audience? What techniques did she use to achieve these aims? Shelagh Delaney wrote "A Taste of Honey" in 1958 when she was only 18. "A Taste of Honey" is a story about the relationship between a girl and her mother. The mother, Helen, who is a semi-whore, leaves her daughter, Jo, to get married to Peter. Jo has a relationship with a sailor and gets pregnant. The sailor then leaves for duty. Jo meets Geoff, they become friends and Geoff offers to help Jo bring up the baby. Helen returns after splitting up with Peter and wants Jo back. The audience that Shelagh Delaney was writing for consisted mainly of middle class and upper class people. Her audience were used to seeing productions about characters leading similar lives to their own. The stereotypical play was where the men worked and the women stayed at home, cleaning and cooking. "A Taste of Honey" did not have these qualities at all. Shelagh Delaney's aims were to shock her audience into seeing what the real world could be like. The audience of the time were relatively un-aware of the truth about working classes and their lives. This type of play was new to the theatrical stage, and could take time before the "working class" plays would be accepted and appreciated. The upper classes were mostly unaware that the lower classes were

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  • Subject: English
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A Taste of Honey

A Taste of Honey A Taste of Honey is a play written by Shelagh Delaney. Shelagh Delaney was born on the 5th of November, 1939 in Salford, Lancashire. At eleven years old she failed to pass the examination that would allow her to enter a grammar school, and she went to a secondary school named Broughton. She was accepted into the grammar school at a later stage as she has proved herself to be intelligent. She was seen to be a 'late developer but by this time she had lost interest in her academic progress and so therefore did not continue on to higher education. Her first play was A Taste of Honey, which she wrote when she was 18, was accepted by a Joan Littlewood for production by Theatre Workshop Company. The first opening of the play was on the 27th of May at the Theatre Royal in East London. A Taste of Honey was transferred to West London on the 10the of February. For this play she received the Foyle's New Play Award and an Arts Council Bursary. In the 1950's England was felling the effects of World War II, so when Shelagh Delaney wrote the play she had experienced World War II. Also because of the World War only lower/ middle class groups would watch the play. Another factor that has caused the play, A Taste of Honey, to be a great success is that it contained issues that were never openly discussed and were consider to be illegal. For example: homosexuality- this was

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A Taste of Honey

Assignment no. 2 A TASTE OF HONEY In a 'normal' mother-daughter relationship a mother's part is to provide love and affection all the time. A mother should provide this love and affection even more when the daughter is feeling depressed and down in the dumps. A 'normal' mother should care for her daughter when she is ill and nurse her back to full health. She should give her daughter advice when problems come up and her get through the problem by helping to come up with a solution. A mother should guide her daughter through life and prepare her for its challenges. A mother should learn from her mistakes and ensure that her daughter doesn't make the same mistakes. A mother should provide stability for her daughter. She should do this by giving her a good home in one place, by providing food and doing things like washing clothes for her. A mother should ensure that her daughter gets a good standard of education. She should encourage her daughter in everything she does and push her so that she achieves it to the highest standard. A mother should teach her daughter the differences between right and wrong so that it will give her a chance to build up her own set of principles in life. The most important thing a mother should do is give her daughter unconditional love and sacrifice her pleasure for the sake of her child. The daughter's part in a 'normal' mother-daughter

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Taste of Honey - Explore the likely similarities and differences between the audience reactions of 1958 and 2003.

A Taste of Honey Explore the likely similarities and differences between the audience reactions of 1958 and 2003. What was particularly shocking for an audience in 1958? How might an audience in 2003 react to the play? What are the dramatic qualities? How were theatrical conventions challenged when this play was first performed? Joan Littlewood first accepted Shelagh Delaney's "A Taste of Honey" in 1958 for production by the Theatre Workshop Company. At this time, Britain was finally beginning to emerge from the shortages and restrictions on life caused by World War Two. The 1950's were a big time of change, and saw the birth of the "teenager", a culture that had previously not been recognised. People were beginning to refuse to accept things the way they were, and films such as, "A Rebel Without a Cause" staring James Dean, showed new rebellious characters, in a way that was innovative and scandalous. "A Taste of Honey" was part of this shocking new rebellion and appealed especially to this new strata in society. It belonged to a period in drama known as the "angry" theatre, started by John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger". Until this time, the majority of plays had been set in London, and were generally about the upper class in society. Delaney had decided to defy this convention, and set her play in Manchester. She said, 'North County people are shown as

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'A Taste of Honey' by Shelagh Delaney examines the relationship between a mother and her daughter. What are the dynamics of this relationship, and how does it develop? What methods might a director use to represent this relationship on stage?

Amy Collins 'A Taste of Honey' examines the relationship between a mother and her daughter. What are the dynamics of this relationship, and how does it develop? What methods might a director use to represent this relationship on stage? You should look at: - - The relationship at different points during the play - Reasons for any changes - Methods of representing the relationship on stage, such as body language, tone of voice and appearance. 'A Taste Of Honey' is a twentieth century play set in the 1950s. It is known as a "kitchen-sink" drama and was written by Shelagh Delaney and was first performed in May 1958. A "kitchen-sink" drama originated in the literature in the 1950s and 1960s. Its aim is to create a true picture of the hard life and troubles of the working class life. The play explores many ideas's that were new for that time period. The play is based on a mother (Helen) her and 15 year old daughter (Jo), Jo has no father because he and Helen had had an affair and he was not interested in a long-term relationship with her. Helen is a prostitute and Jo is about to leave school. Jo falls in love and gets engaged to a young sailor who then leaves her. Helen then gets married and moves in with her husband Peter leaving Jo to fend for herself. Jo finds a friend in a gay man called Jeff who moves in with her and helps her to look after herself. Jo then finds out

  • Word count: 1989
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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