‘A Taste of Honey’ - National Theatre: Lyttleton Theatre - Saturday 26th April 2014, Film 1961 Dir Tony Richardson

(Rated 4/5 )

I saw the stage version of this play and then a few days later saw the film too. An obvious thing to say but how different and yet the same! To me the film had a darker feel and hit me harder but the play allowed a deeper exploration of the characters particularly through the dialogue, and somehow brought out more of the comedy in the dynamics between them. I felt despair at the end of the film, but hope somehow at the end of the play. It feels strange – yet I guess obvious – to get such polar feelings from the two different productions. I suppose the darkness of the film may also have to do with it being in black and white, and the more obviously visible darkness of the settings – Salford and Blackpool - and many of them cutting fairly frequently from one to another. Location changes in the play are much fewer – in the main we are either in Helen and Jo’s small ‘shabby’ flat together or Jo’s first home alone - and the characters convey to us changes in time with actions between ‘scenes’, especially with lots of great movements to music! The dancing was great and the musical interludes fun, expressive, light and deeply moving all at the same time. I loved Lesley Sharp and Kate O’Flynn as mother Helen and daughter Jo respectively. Lesley Sharp never disappoints for me though I struggled a little to feel empathy for her in a role that is so unsavoury and uncaring for her daughter yet favours the next man who turns up to woo her only, as you can so easily predict, to then let her down. Kate O’Flynn’s Jo is brilliant! She has a strength and resilience from coping with her mother moving them from place to place - no stability, no security - and bringing herself up as Helen couldn’t be bothered with and often abandoned her, yet also such a sensitivity and delicateness. A very knowing yet childlike character longing to love and be loved yet so wary and unsure of both. I loved the expressiveness in her voice, its tone, volume, accent – perfectly pitched in speech and song. Dean Lennox Kelly was suitably unlikeable as Helen’s ‘friend’ Peter, Eric Kofi Abrefa lovely as Jo’s sailor-boy Jimmie and Harry Hepple (great name) adorable as Jo’s gay friend Geoffrey, with whom she finally shares a kind of idyllic playing being a family about to bring up baby together. I found myself beautifully enveloped by the dialogue and performances and didn’t notice it being such a long play. Helen is played by Dora Bryan in the much shorter film which also introduced Rita Tushingham as Jo. Again excellent performances with the camera up close and personal to all the nuances of feeling in the actors’ faces. This play transports us to the experiences of women in 1950s Salford. A radically different perspective to what had gone before and written by the amazing Shelagh Delaney.

A Taste of Honey – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2014

‘She Stoops to Conquer’ - National Theatre: Olivier Theatre - Thursday 15th March 2012

(Rated 4/5 )

I studied this play at school and remember feeling really strongly for the characters. Coming from a middle class background I had a kind of innate rejection of people who put on airs or consider themselves better than others because of money or career status. That may sound strange but the previous generation of my family had struggled and worked really hard for their money. So the concept of someone from a higher class stooping to a lower class to win love was somehow romantic and comfortable for me. And who was the heroine, Kate Hardcastle, doing that for? Marlow was also of an upper class but very shy with women from his own class. He was only able to be himself with those of a class lower than himself. Oddly perhaps I could, and still can, really identify with that. I lost my power and myself with those of my supposed class and always felt far more drawn to those without plums in their mouths, who talked ‘common’, who were not of high IQ but rather EQ. And I was extremely shy and feeling that meant I would not get a boyfriend. So there’s the empathy – or rather sympathy – right there. I would have loved someone to step down from his higher power status to conquer my shyness and win me. I could really relate to Marlow’s lack of confidence in love. And I coveted Kate’s self-assurance.

Oliver Goldsmith’s 18^th century script plays on all these ideas that people allowed to control their lives at the time – issues around class, power, manners and morals - and was extremely daring. He wrote about people as they are, and not falsely how they ought to be, and mocked them.

The play, as its alternative title The Mistakes of a Night suggests, hinges on many mistaken happenings and people deceiving each other. This device is used so often in plays of that time and of course, in Shakespearean comedy, that it does feel a little dated and predictable. But that’s fine when the production and performances are as good as in this case. I could forgive it the over-long 3 hours – well just about – hence one point off perfect in my score.

Nobody fell short in this production, which makes it hard to pick out those who stood out. I almost feel it’s a matter of taste rather than one actor being ‘better’ or not. I have seen Sophie Thompson before in only a few roles; the biggest impression she made on me was in playing abusive Stella in Eastenders and unfortunately it wasn’t a good impression as I didn’t believe her in the role. This time, if you’ll forgive the pun, she was deliciously stellar and really shone out, carrying the show in her portrayal of Kate’s mother, Mrs Hardcastle. She was extremely amusing and very natural in Mrs Hardcastle’s absurdity. The surprise draw for me was John Hefferman as Marlow’s friend Hastings. With a smile that lifted the heart so convincingly you couldn’t fail to smile with him, he constantly promised to break out into a chuckle and was enormous fun to watch. I’d been very much looking forward to seeing Katherine Kelly as Kate Hardcastle. As her Coronation Street co-star David Nielson said, she is something very special. Becky Granger was one of the most outstanding empathy-inducing soap characters ever and Katherine superbly conveyed the rollercoater of behaviours and emotions triggered by Becky’s event-loaded journey on the Corrie cobbles. My only disappointment in her as Kate Hardcastle was that the role didn’t test her full dramatic range. But her sensitivity and sense of comedy was impeccable – she sparkled.

The set and costumes were impressive and amusing in their authenticity. There’s such a sense that this period of time was empirically farcical.

P.S. For those with disability of the lower limbs it’s worth noting that there are many flights of stairs to climb to The Olivier Theatre. You may like to take the lift. The seats are very comfortable. And the setting – The South Bank – is a personal favourite of mine.

She Stoops to Conquer – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2012

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