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Post by BurlyBeaR on Feb 15, 2019 13:58:04 GMT
 Starring Jodie Prenger as Helen. A Taste of Honey will open there at The Lowry from 13 - 21 September, with a press night on Friday 20 September. The tour will also visit the Kings Theatre, Edinburgh (24 - 28 September); the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury (1 - 5 October); Richmond Theatre (7 - 12 October); Grand Opera House, Belfast (15 - 19 October); Leicester Curve (22 - 26 October); Theatre Royal, Bath (28 October - 2 November); Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton (5 - 9 November); and the Norwich Theatre Royal (12 - 16 November). Tickets will go on sale in venues from mid-February, check theatre websites for specific details. |
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Post by TallPaul on Feb 15, 2019 14:35:32 GMT
(Almost) perfect timing, BurlyBeaR. I first saw this a few days ago, and wanted to share it then, but wasn't sure where to post it. It gave me goosebumps when I first read it, and it's given me goosebumps again just now. |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Feb 15, 2019 16:45:22 GMT
Odd to imagine her walking out of the Opera House and thinking “I’ll write a play”. I usually leave the Opera House thinking “God I need a drink after that” or “where can I get some chips?” But I suppose that’s the difference between me and Shelagh Delaney. I always think of A Taste Of Honey when I pass the 02 Ritz on Whitworth Street which is where they filmed the dance hall scene with Dora Bryan twirling around with her fancy man. Loved the film, never seen it on stage.
Band on stage for this apparently. Not sure why, you only need a solo trumpet!
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Post by showgirl on Feb 15, 2019 16:52:48 GMT
Surely this isn't actually an NT production? It's not that long since they did this & they don't mount such extensive tours either.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Feb 15, 2019 16:59:46 GMT
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Post by showgirl on Feb 16, 2019 4:40:18 GMT
Wow, my apologies, then - I had an email from one of the venues and there was no mention of the NT; also the casting was completely different and somewhat surprising.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2019 18:14:55 GMT
Is Kate O'Flynn touring with this?
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Post by david on Feb 16, 2019 18:25:18 GMT
Is Kate O'Flynn touring with this? I’ve just had a look at the Salford Lowry info. Apart from the previously announced Jodie Prenger, it doesn’t give any further casting info unfortunately. |
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Post by stevej678 on Sept 24, 2019 7:42:50 GMT
Transferring to the Trafalgar Studios from 5th December until 29th February.
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Post by stefy69 on Sept 24, 2019 7:58:01 GMT
Transferring to the Trafalgar Studios from 5th December until 29th February. Excellent love this play |
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Post by barrowside on Sept 24, 2019 8:07:53 GMT
Even though it’s the same production team and billed as the NT production it looks like it’s been restaged as the description of the set doesn’t sound like the set in The Lyttelton and I don’t remember the band being on stage. This would be no harm as the set was very clunky and overwhelmed the play. Has anyone seen both and compared?
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Post by stefy69 on Sept 24, 2019 8:59:23 GMT
Not seen this version but you're right the Lyttleton one had no band on stage.
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Post by maggiem on Sept 24, 2019 11:50:12 GMT
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Post by marob on Sept 24, 2019 16:49:10 GMT
I saw it on Saturday. I didn't realise it had the same director as it's quite different to the one at the National five years ago. Where the set at the National was a realistic small and cluttered room, this one is much larger, filling the stage, and more "modern theatre set." The jazz trio is on stage the whole time, the piano at the front on the left, the drums at the front on the right, and the double bass in the middle near the back somewhere. I had some sightline issues with the staging. I was sitting on the left of the stalls near the aisle, so the paino and a piece of set (a really tall wall slightly left of centre, that gets turned around occasionally) blocked the view whenever a character crossed from the sofa to the bedroom (at the back on the left,) and I couldn't see the double bass player at all. So if you're going to see this my advice FWIW would be to try to sit as centrally as you can. Though in the Lowry stalls you're looking up to the stage, so that may not be as much of an issue somewhere like Trafalgar Studios where you're looking down. Here's a few other observations {Spoiler - click to view}
Cast and musicians are already on stage as the audience enters and each act starts with a song. I didn't recognise Helen's song, and it threw me a bit when Jodie Prenger started singing. Act 2 begins with Geof singing Mad About the Boy, a bit on-the-nose maybe, but I really liked Stuart Thompson and I think this is a great professional debut for him. The odd line of dialogue is sung also, which is a bit random. The understudies are roped in to help with scene changes so at certain points with the cast, understudies and musicians there's a lot of people on stage for a play that only has five characters. Tom Varey's only in his 20s, yet is playing someone who claims to have lost his eye fighting in the war. Should we think he's lying, or are we just supposed to ignore his age? And like I said above, what a stupid bloody place to put a wall. It's the second production I've seen of it, and the second time I've thought it was good, but not necessarily a great modern classic. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2019 18:09:51 GMT
I’m hoping this delay in National productions touring means there is still hope for an Edward II tour!!!!
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Post by drowseychap on Sept 25, 2019 0:00:06 GMT
Wolverhampton adverting all tickets £15 for this and the entertainer
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Dec 15, 2019 7:21:03 GMT
Now at Trafalgar Studios
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Post by edi on Dec 30, 2019 23:07:34 GMT
My last show for this year and one that I was really looking forward to but ultimately it didn't live up to my expectations.
The main issue with it is that it should be portraying the gritty lives of the characters, instead we have singing and an on stage jazz band that softens the ambiance considerably. It doesn't come across as the characters were in real poverty and despair.
I also felt that the actor who played the new husband wasn't the right one for the role. It should've been someone "hardened by life" and rough. The actor was a bit too soft and young, unconvincing.
Again, I lost the first 10 mins of conversations due to the strong put on accents but after that I got into the rhythm of it.
I am looking forward to see this again but by a different production.
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Post by joem on Jan 25, 2020 23:58:28 GMT
Surprised so few people here seem to have gone to this.
A play of its time, it has some parallels with "angry young plays" but only in the sense of bringing young characters to the fore and eschewing elegant plotlines and middle-class concerns by replacing them with working-class lifestyles and mannerisms.
Helen (Jodie Penger) is a self-centred, ageing maniser working in pubs with lost dreams of being a singer and in search of financial security. Her neglected daughter Jo (Gemma Dobson) is about to leave school and looking for love outside her one-parental home. It does smack of the gritty (often "northern") realism so popular from the late fifties through to the late sixties but there is plenty of humour in this with some very smart phrases.
If there is one problem with the structure of this play it is, for me, that the second part concentrates on the put-upon daughter. Put-upon characters are rarely interesting and this one is just about ok but a pale shadow of her more interesting, if often reprehensible, mum. It would be like putting Jimmy Porter in the background in "Look Back In Anger". The play loses vitality and drive whenever Helen is not onstage.
I can't help but feel that Shelagh Delaney has been (unjustly) somewhat neglected and that her other works should be revived.
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Post by NeilVHughes on Jan 26, 2020 9:02:26 GMT
Caught the matinee yesterday.
Definitely of it’s time with no attempt to update which is most probably the best decision as not sure how ‘modernisable’ the kitchen sink dramas of the angry young era are and throughout was thinking of look back in anger, one of the top plays on my revival wish list.
The redeeming feature is the opportunity to see two excellent female roles and after watching The Welkin in the evening this piece even though only written 50yrs ago portrays a world which is not fundamentally different to that in the Welkin.
Was in the front row (A) and as there is no raised stage is most probably the best in the house.
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Post by Jane Parfitt on Feb 16, 2020 11:05:41 GMT
I went to see this yesterday and found it rather disappointing. As Jodie Prenger herself has a lancashire accent why didn't they let her speak with her own voice rather than the very odd Hilda Baker-esque delivery that she gave? Unfortunately this detracted from the fact that her acting was good. Gemma Dobson and Stuart Thompson as Jo and Geoffrey were stand out for me though.
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Post by Dr Tom on Feb 24, 2020 23:58:59 GMT
Saw this tonight. It's very much a historical oddity which I'm sure was shocking in its time.
Fairly full. I got a Friday rush seat, which was excellent value for £10, fifth row. Excellent view. A few Mountview staff in the row in front.
To me, the second half is much stronger than the first half, but not everyone in the audience came back for it.
From an acting point of view, this is really the Gemma Dobson show. She's barely off stage and carries everything throughout. I did like Stuart Thompson too (had to look him up if I'd seen him in anything at LAMDA, but although I saw Bare, I saw the other cast). And Durone Stokes did well and has made himself look so much older than he did playing CC in Dreamgirls that it took me a while to work out where I recognised him from.
It's quite amusing how it's only a five person play, but they have to have four covers (only one covering two roles) and you can see how much the covers look like the person they've covering. All the covers do take part, if only to dance and move the set around - and they do get to bow at the end.
I had to try and avoid looking at the band as they just looked so bored, especially the drummer who made no attempt to hide it.
One that kept my attention and I'm glad I've seen it, but it probably isn't a play I would see again.
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