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wrong colour: Jo assumes that her baby will be as black as its father. Her momentary outburst against the baby, motherhood and womanhood is short-lived, and she and Geoff are about to have tea when Helen enters with all her luggage. Apparently, she has been thrown out by Peter and now plans to move in with her daughter. To get rid of Geoff, she behaves rudely to him while overwhelming Jo with advice and presents. Jo defends Geoff, but while she is asleep, Geoff decides to leave because Helen is determined and he does not want Jo to be pulled between them. Jo wakes, and Helen pretends that Geoff is out doing the shopping. When her mother learns that the baby will be black, she loses her nerve and rushes out for a drink, even though Jo's labour pains have begun. Alone, Jo comforts herself by humming a tune Geoff used to sing, still not realising that he has in fact gone...
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regular drinker, and she and Jo have a confrontational and ambiguously interdependent relationship. As they settle, Helen's surprise at some of Jo's drawings both suggests Jo's talent and originality and shows Helen's lack of interest and knowledge about her daughter. Jo rejects the idea of going to an art school, blaming Helen for having interrupted her training all too often by moving her constantly from one school to another. Jo now only wants to leave school and earn her own money so that she can get away from Helen. After this conversation, Peter (Helen's younger boyfriend) comes in. Jo assumes that Helen has moved here to escape from him, but the audience never is told the reason why. Peter had not realised how old Helen was until he sees her daughter. Nonetheless he asks Helen to marry him, first half-jokingly, then more or less in earnest.
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same time Jo, who is white, begins a romantic relationship with Jimmy, a black sailor. Despite being only 15, she tells him she is nearly 18 and therefore nearly old enough to marry without parental permission. He proposes marriage but then goes to sea, leaving Jo pregnant and alone. She finds lodgings with a gay acquaintance, Geoffrey, who assumes the role of surrogate father. Helen returns after leaving her lover and the future of Jo's new home is put into question.
729:". "This Night Has Opened My Eyes", an earlier Smiths song, is based on the play and includes a paraphrase of Geoffrey's line to Jo near the end: "The dream has gone but the baby is real." Morrissey's lyrics include other borrowings from Delaney, such as "river the colour of lead" and "I'm not happy and I'm not sad", both of which are spoken by the lead character Jo. Other quotations and near-quotations appear in several other songs by The Smiths and Morrissey.
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possibly been thrown out from his former lodgings because his landlady suspected he was gay. Jo offends him with insensitive questions about his sexuality, and he in turn maliciously criticises her drawings. She apologises and asks him to stay, sleeping on the couch. Geoff develops genuine concern for Jo's situation, and they develop a friendly, light-hearted relationship.
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young, one of her occasional bursts of real feeling and concern for her daughter. Asked by Jo about her real father, Helen explains that she had been married to a "Puritan" and that she had to look elsewhere for sexual pleasure. Thus she had her first sexual experience with Jo's father, a "not very bright man," a "bit retarded". She then hurries off to her wedding.
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at the thought of Helen marrying Peter, but pesters and provokes him in an effort to antagonise him. After Helen and Peter leave her on her own for
Christmas, Jo weeps, and she is consoled by her boyfriend. She invites him to stay over Christmas, but she has a feeling that she never will see him again.
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in North West
England, it tells the story of Jo, a working class schoolgirl, and her mother, Helen, who is presented as tarty, foul mouthed and promiscuous. Helen leaves Jo alone in their new flat after she begins a relationship with Peter, a flashy, moneyed "wide boy" who is younger than her. At the
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Jo, however, guesses as much, and she is angry with both Helen and Geoff. Geoff tries to interfere in the quarrel between the two women, but each time, he is attacked by one or the other or both. As Helen is offering Jo money, Peter comes in, very drunk, and takes back the money and Helen's offer of
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In the first scene, Helen and her teenage daughter Jo are moving into a shabby flat. Within a few minutes, the audience learns that they have little money, living off Helen's immoral earnings—money given to her by her lovers; she is not a true prostitute, being more of a "good time girl." Helen is a
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At the flat, Helen informs Jo that she is going to marry Peter. Peter enters, and a dialogue ensues among the three. Instead of only Jo and Helen attacking each other, a more complex pattern evolves: Jo attacks the others, the others attack Jo, and Helen attacks both Peter and Jo. Jo is truly upset
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In the next scene, Jo is walking home in the company of her black boyfriend. During a light-hearted, semi-serious dialogue, he asks her to marry him, and she agrees, but he is in the navy and will be away on his ship for six months before they can marry. He gives Jo a ring that she hangs around her
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In the next scene, the baby is due at any moment. Jo and Geoff seem happy. He reassures her that Helen was probably mistaken about or exaggerating the mental deficiencies of Jo's father. Geoff has bought a doll for Jo to practise handling the baby, but Jo flings it to the ground because it is the
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Several months later, Jo is living alone in the same shabby flat. She works in a shoe shop by day and in a bar in the evenings to afford the rent. She is pregnant, and her boyfriend has not come back to her. She returns from a funfair to the flat in the company of Geoff, an art student, who has
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The action moves to the occasion of Helen's wedding, the day after
Christmas. Jo has a cold and will not be able to attend at the wedding. Because she is in her pyjamas, Helen catches a glimpse of the ring around her neck and learns the truth. She scolds Jo violently for thinking of marrying so
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The audience next sees Jo irritable and depressed by her pregnancy, with Geoff patiently consoling her. Then, seeking reassurance, he kisses her and asks her to marry him. Jo says that, although she likes him, she cannot marry him. She makes a sexual pass at him which he fails to recognise,
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was originally intended as a novel, but
Delaney turned it into a play because she hoped to revitalise British theatre and address social issues that she thought were not being presented. The play was produced by
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comments on, and puts into question, class, race, age of sexual consent, gender, sexual orientation and illegitimacy in mid-twentieth-century
Britain. It became known as a "
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wrote "Miss
Delaney brings real people on to her stage, joking and flaring and scuffling and, eventually, out of the zest for life she gives them, surviving” ; while
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confirming that "it is not marrying love between us". At this point, Helen enters. She has been contacted by Geoff, who wishes to keep this fact secret from Jo.
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neck under her clothes to hide it from Helen. Jo tells him that she is really leaving school and that she is going to start a part-time job in a pub.
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fringe theatre in London, on 27 May 1958. It starred
Frances Cuka as Jo and Avis Bunnage as her mother. The production then transferred to
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called the play "a work of complete, exhilarating originality," giving "a real escape from the middlebrow, middle-class vacuum of the
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a home to Jo. He leaves, insisting that Helen come with him; after a moment's hesitation, she runs after him.
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The Apex Jazz Trio – Johnny
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The Boy: Also known as Jimmy, a black sailor, with whom Jo falls in love and becomes pregnant
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writing that it tasted not of honey, but "of exercise books and marmalade." However,
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Methuen
Student Edition with commentary and notes. London: Methuen Publishing, 1982.
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Geoffrey: An art student in his early 20s who becomes Jo's roommate and friend
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Josephine, her teenage daughter, known as Jo, raised solely by Helen
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Helen: A hardened, working-class, single mother and alcoholic
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894:"Review of A Taste of Honey by Lindsay Anderson, 1958"
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Peter: Helen's younger, wealthy boyfriend from London
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21:A Taste of Honey (disambiguation)
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1080:The Railway Station Man
947:Passions Just Like Mine
697:, for BBC television's
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554:Geoffrey – David Moorst
548:Peter – Andrew Sheridan
508:Josephine – Jodie McNee
417:Geoffrey - Ashley Artus
414:The Boy - Mark Springer
309:Costumes by Una Collins
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859:. BBC. 7 November 2004
517:Jimmy – Marcel McCalla
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159:on 10 February 1959.
118:film of the same title
1118:Lancashire in fiction
1072:Dance with a Stranger
807:The Broadway League.
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607:Jimmy – Thuso Lekwape
189:(left) as Helen with
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143:and premiered at the
835:The Watford Observer
727:Girlfriend in a Coma
604:Jo – Taylor Ferguson
377:The Boy – Tom Wright
374:Peter – John Carroll
314:Broadway cast (1960)
19:For other uses, see
898:The British Library
1123:LGBT-related plays
831:"A Taste of Honey"
762:Delaney, Shelagh.
707:Popular references
342:Billy Dee Williams
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837:. 2 November 2000
764:A Taste of Honey.
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476:Samantha Robinson
440:Jo – Beth Squires
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587:Harry Hepple
572:Kate O'Flynn
566:Lesley Sharp
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474:Josephine –
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382:Keith Reddin
368:Josephine –
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276:Josephine –
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585:Geoffrey –
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520:Geoffrey –
489:Geoffrey –
455:Geoffrey –
426:cast (2004)
424:BBC Radio 3
380:Geoffrey –
346:Geoffrey –
303:Setting by
294:Geoffrey –
260:Productions
67:27 May 1958
1103:1958 plays
1097:Categories
771:References
751:Ian McEwan
717:The Smiths
668:Daily Mail
643:Peter Egan
641:as Helen,
628:Diana Dors
449:The Boy –
404:Kaye Wragg
348:Andrew Ray
340:The Boy –
288:The Boy –
238:Characters
120:in 1961.
101:Manchester
48:Characters
1004:Works by
713:Morrissey
654:Reception
634:as Peter.
305:John Bury
149:socialist
53:Josephine
931:BBC Four
863:10 April
815:10 April
792:10 April
757:See also
738:Thieving
684:West End
610:Peter –
598:Helen –
579:Peter –
564:Helen –
536:Helen –
532:Source:
511:Peter –
502:Helen –
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468:Helen –
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430:Source:
408:Peter -
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392:Source:
362:Helen –
358:Source:
334:Peter –
322:Helen –
318:Source:
282:Peter –
270:Helen –
157:West End
59:Geoffrey
1138:Salford
967:at the
949:website
700:Monitor
662:in the
155:in the
125:Salford
123:Set in
98:Setting
85:English
57:The Boy
1083:(1992)
1075:(1985)
1067:(1967)
1059:(1967)
1051:(1961)
1032:(1960)
1024:(1958)
811:. IBDB
788:. IBDB
680:Encore
649:as Jo.
637:1984.
626:1970.
1013:Plays
570:Jo –
542:Jo –
402:Jo -
217:Act 2
178:Act 1
93:Drama
90:Genre
55:Peter
51:Helen
865:2012
843:2018
817:2012
794:2012
173:Plot
147:, a
749:by
686:."
678:in
139:'s
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885:^
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796:.
23:.
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