Tag: George Dennis

A Taste Of Honey

Large Theatres
Rowan Robinson as Jo and Jill Halfpenny as Helen in A Taste Of Honey at The Royal Exchange Theatre
Image credit: Johan Persson

Written by Shelagh Delaney

Directed by Emma Baggott

ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE

This revival of the classic kitchen sink drama A Taste Of Honey by Director Emma Baggott is clearly a fan girl love letter to Shelagh Delaney and her beloved Salford. Impassioned and vibrant, the women that Delaney wrote at age 19, burst unto the stage unapologetically flawed and unflinchingly forthright. The men here are secondary whether callous or kind, they are merely there as supporting roles in the women’s stories. Over sixty years on and this story of impoverished, working class women still has the capacity to shock. Today there may be more choices and acceptance around homosexuality and race but the cost of living crisis is still leaving families on the breadline, reproductive rights are under threat and sky rocketing rents and greedy landlords have families living in accommodation every bit as grim as this Salford maisonette.

Designer Peter Butler has really accentuated the dreamy realism of A Taste Of Honey. There are all the authentic looking furnishings of a sparse, shabby rented flat with few touches of homeliness but suspended above the bleakness is a vast construction that can illuminate the space with fairground bulbs. Like a skeleton of a carousel it looms over the stage with echoes of the Salford gasworks and when illuminated by Lighting Designer Simisola Majekodumni there is the  sudden warm glow of endless possibilities in this usually drab environment.

Image credit: Johan Persson

Jill Halfpenny epitomises all the restless dissatisfaction of Helen with her casual disregard of her teenage daughter Jo and her unflinching focus on her own survival. She is a she wolf with scant maternal instincts incapable of loving either wisely or well. Halfpenny oozes the kind of tough, gritty sensuality reminiscent of the great Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street. She truly is an overblown rose ripe for the picking and full of thorns as daughter Jo is just blossoming and already sprouting her own defensive prickly thorns.

This thorny relationship is harshly devisive as both women battle for survival and supremacy. Rowan Robinson gives Jo moments of vulnerability fitted to this child woman who finds herself pregnant and repeatedly abandoned by those who could and should do better. Recognising a mother who had so much love for others and none for me she fleetingly tests love and rejects it. Robinson is the sparky and stroppy teenage girl capable of  giving as good as she gets but there are moments in certain exchanges such as when she flirts with her new stepfather that can seem slightly off kilter. Scenes with an excellent David Moorst as Geoffrey are beautifully executed as she plays house with this young gay man and seems destined to play out the patterns of her own deeply flawed Mother.

Rowan Robinson as Jo and David Moorst as Geoffrey in A Taste Of Honey at Royal Exchange
Image credit: Johan Persson

Moorst gives an intense and brittle performance that perfectly encapsulates the grief of a young gay man in The Sixties who realises he will never get the family life and children he craves. Andrew Sheridan as Peter is his polar opposite as the younger man who thinks he can buy love and then casually discard it like a sweet wrapper in the gutter.

There is much to love in this production but like its characters there are flaws. There are moments when performers are hard to hear which is less due to them and more about the staging. The positioning slightly off stage of the bed for instance allows for a very intimate experience for certain seats but means that a few scenes occur with quite a restricted experience for much of the audience. Overall it is rich and vibrant production pulsing with all the passion Delaney imbued her original script with. The  arrangement by Alexandra Faye Braithwaite and the use of Nishla Smith as the  jazz singer who weaves in melodies such as Dirty Old Town written about post-war  Salford by Ewan MacColl are perfect. The silent observing of every scene by Smith punctuated by her glorious etheral singing is the glue that pulls together this collection of lost souls. Her vocal is the only taste of honey that does not lose its sweetness or turn sour.

ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE 15TH MARCH – 13TH APRIL 2023

RICHARD III

Large Theatres

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by John Haidar

Shakespeare’s tale of the “undigested and deformed lump” that is his Richard III is considerably tweaked in this version by John Haidor for Headlong. Here we see a man more emotionally stunted than physically restricted by his disability. Tom Mothersdale delivers a Richard whose twisted body is as fluid as his nature is mercurial. The hall of mirrors that dominates the set serves as judge and jury to Richard’s lack of conscience and reflects back to the audience as a means of drawing us into this tale of political greed, narcissistic ambition and false news.

Mothersdale manages to repulse and charm in equal measure. His capacity for brutal acts and honeyed words is that of a true sociopath or charming manipulator. Moments of visceral violence as he bites his victims with the suddenness of a deadly spider sit uncomfortably alongside humour as he mischievously addresses the audience close up or prances with a makeshift crown like a gleeful child ransacking the dressing up trunk. For all his cunning and remorseless violence there is the vulnerability of a child who recognizes his mother is ashamed of his twisted body and repulsed by his twisted nature. Director Haidar ensures that we see this wounded child who has long ago decided that if he cannot have the love and admiration of others, he will command their hate and fear. Mothersdale captivates throughout in what is a truly demanding role. Rarely off stage he is never less than electrifying especially in the second act when demented by jeering ghosts he sees his fleeting success melt away on the battlefield. Bloodied and mud stained he smears mud across the reflected ghosts as if to wipe out any hint of his own wrongdoings.

Chiara Stephenson has designed a set that is gloomy and forbidding in its grey ramparts and dungeons but cut through with reflective mirrored archways. These arches allow actors to move rapidly between scenes while also creating depth to the set as the ghosts appears behind them and the audience is reflected in them looking at ourselves just as Richard examines himself in these multiple looking glasses.

Haidar makes use of every possible dramatic element that can be drawn from this gothic castle. Stony grey yet pulsating with life and bloodied by death this is a building that echoes its history in every mirrored arch reflecting lives once there and now just ghosts in the fabric of the building. The use of light and sound by Elliot Griggs and George Dennis provide striking flourishes that give the murders and battles scenes slashes of colour and sound that evoke video game violence- perhaps to suggest Richards own childlike lack of awareness of the real consequences of his actions. If at times elements appear overplayed or exaggerated they encapsulate Shakespeare’s original exaggeration of the real man. Whether you love it or not the impact of the attention seeking design elements and directorial flourishes are as in your face as Richard himself.

This feels a very fresh and timely revisiting of Richard III. There is a truly monstrous quality to this character in his relentless quest for political power. The wily cunning off an ambitious man who exalts in having neither pity love or fear is a chilling reminder of some of our politicians who make decisions for us based on their own fragile narcissistic egos and lust for power. Like Richard they strut across the world stage daring us, the audience, in how much we will allow them to destroy before we revolt and them down. Personally there are quite a few political anti heroes I would love to see buried under a carpark in Leicester!

Headlong

HOME 30 April – 4 May 2019

Images by Marc Brenner