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A Taste of Honey
Shelagh Delaney’s groundbreaking 1958 play, along with John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger, defined the “kitchen sink” school of British-Isles realism, casting an unflinching eye on all manner of social ills, repressed subcultures and working-class drudgery. Sparking a new frankness onstage and onscreen across the pond, the play’s long-term influence probably maxed out with the early films of Stephen Frears, Mike Leigh and Neil Jordan. But Shattered Globe’s revival demonstrates that its colloquial power and socioeconomic relevance remain undiminished.
Helen and Jo are as dysfunctional a mother-daughter duo as you’ll find. Never-grew-up mom takes up with a cad, then marries him, abandoning the child she never really raised anyway; eighteen-year-old Jo repeats her mother’s mistakes, gets knocked up and settles into a wretched but hopeful domesticity with her possibly gay friend Geof. The cad runs out and mom comes back home, leaving us where we started, plus one baby on the way. The paralysis of poverty and the inescapability of class are the whole point, making this stasis a dramatic strength, not a weakness; that said, two hours and 40 minutes are a little taxing.
Thankfully the general unpleasantness is trumped by richly observed dialogue, blasts of giddy gallows humor and the occasional compassionate moment. This is an actor’s play, and under Wechsler’s expert direction, the cast goes to town. As likable monster Helen, Reiter is marvelous, favorably comparable to Deanna Dunagan in August: Osage County. Rising actor Sadler continues her ascent as lost-girl Jo, doing beautifully nuanced, utterly believable work. And Viol’s sly underplaying of the enigmatic Geof keeps stealthy pace with both.
