Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Sharon Byatt, Sophie Coward, Chris Pybus, Jason Lamar Ricketts, James Templeton.
Adapting, or even directing, one of the modern theatre classics has always fallen somewhere between utterly compelling and deserved, and the brave choice which could be fraught with too high an expectation.
It is one thing to tackle the works of Shakespeare, the inherent memory allows us distance and perspective on anything that is pre-20th Century, but when you start to remind audiences of the short time that has elapsed, the way that millions throughout the country once lived, the squalor, the lack of opportunity, the failure of successive governments to deal with the lack of housing and the memory of having survived as a nation the jackboots and evil of Fascism, then it is a territory of theatre that raises the prospect and belief of the audience to a higher plane.
Fearless is the director who takes on such a challenge, valiant is the actor who sheds their skin for such a role as Jo or Helen from Shelagh Delaney’s popular and acclaimed A Taste of Honey; and for Daniel Taylor, never one to shy away from such a questioning encounter, Sharon Byatt and Sophie Coward, this new production at the Epstein Theatre is one that targets the parallels between 1958 Britain and the world of today. Sixty years in which so much has moved on, and yet remains inexplicably rooted, almost in defiance, to the spot in which families are torn apart, children are treated as slaves to a system and neglect of common values is chewed off by the spite of want.
Liverpool’s Rita Tushingham will always be the one that devotees will always look to in reverence of the part of Jo, the sense of childhood ripped constantly from her, the sarcasm beating within each barbed sentence like a jack-hammer, but ultimately in need of attention, care and love to replace the hurt constantly pushed down to reveal the hard and stern demeanour. Yet Sophie Coward performs the part with such drive, such wish to return to more innocent times blazing in her eyes and scowling, almost demanding rebellion attitude, that she inhabits Ms. Tushingham’s soul on stage with grace.
With Sharon Byatt giving an expert performance as Jo’s mother, Helen, and the three representations of the patriarchy that they battled against, ownership, abandonment and entitlement, in the wonderful acting form of Chris Pybus, Jason Lamar Ricketts and James Templeton, A Taste of Honey remains one of the single most important plays that deals with Britain’s social policy towards its citizens in the last 60 years; a dynamic and forthright production!
Ian D. Hall