Putting female stories centre stage in ‘A Taste of Honey’ at Stantonbury Theatre next month

We will be at Stantonbury Theatre from 14^th – 17^th May with ‘A Taste of Honey’ by Shelagh Delaney. 

In this blog, we give you insight into the iconic kitchen-sink drama and introduce you to our fantastic cast.
‘A Taste of Honey’ is a groundbreaking and gritty play written by Shelagh Delaney in the late 1950s when she was just nineteen.

Delaney wrote ‘A Taste of Honey’ after seeing her first theatre production at the Manchester Opera House. She believed the play, and other writing during this time, were male and middle class centric. She wanted to change the narrative and bring working class and women’s stories to the stage, particularly sharing the voices and struggles of those in northern England.   

‘A Taste of Honey’ provides a women’s perspective of working-class life, social issues, and poverty in Salford. It discusses many themes and controversial issues that were not portrayed in theatre in the 50s, such as single motherhood, class, race, age of sexual consent, gender, sexual orientation and illegitimacy.

This play was ahead of its time seventy years ago, and yet still so relevant today. 

Synopsis

Set in Salford, ‘A Taste of Honey’ is an iconic coming-of-age British drama that focuses on teenager Jo, and her dysfunctional relationship with her drunk and selfish mother, Helen.

 The Cast

Thank you to everyone who joined us at our auditions last month. We are delighted to introduce our fantastic local cast of ‘A Taste of Honey’.

Caroline Nash – Helen 
Caroline trained at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama. She toured the UK with ‘Macbeth’, ‘Aladdin’, ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘Field of Dreams’ and completed a 6 month tour of Austria with Vienna’s English Theatre. She performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in a one woman play ‘From Me To 3792’ setting up Next Page Productions enroute with the sole purpose of presenting new writing. She then produced, acted and toured in ‘Rose Cottage’, ‘Invisible’ and ‘Calling For Help’ in the Midlands. A highlight was performing as Joan Sims in ‘Funny Faces’, directed by Rosemary Hill, and she is delighted to have the opportunity to work with Rosemary again.

Tayla Kenyon - Jo 
Tayla is an actor and writer who trained at the Manchester School of Theatre. She won Best Individual Performance for Genesis: The Mary Shelley Play at the Edinburgh Fringe and Best Performance for FLUFF at the Birmingham Fringe Festival, where the play also received Best Piece.

Tayla was nominated for Best Actress at the Buxton Fringe, and FLUFF won Best Theatre Production. She was selected as an Emerging Talent for Hay Festival’s 2024 Platform programme. Beyond acting, Tayla’s poem Whispers of a Stepmother is published in a catalogue of stories entitled Motherhood Uncensored, she also co-wrote FLUFF, which is published by Playdead Press.

Credits Include: FLUFF (UK Tour, Theatre503, New Wimbledon Theatre), Legend of Aramelle (Podcast series), Genesis: The Mary Shelley Play (Edinburgh Fringe), Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Pendley Shakespeare Festival), The Penetration Play (Above The Stag, Theatre), NetherBard (Hen & Chickens Theatre).  

Angus Roughley - Geof 
Angus trained as an actor at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, after completing a Russian and Italian degree at Bristol University.

His theatre work is international from Chekov in Russia to new writing in London, most recently in ‘Run at it Laughing’ written and directed by Mark Ravenhill and ‘W.O.K.E Up!’ at The Turbine Theatre. Angus voiced multiple roles on BBC Sounds podcast ‘Believe in Magic’ (placed second by The Guardian’s podcasts of 2023) and won the Best Actor award at the British Independent Film Festival for short film ‘Patience’ in 2024.

Brian Bususu – Jimmie (The Boy) 
Brian Bususu takes on the role of Jimmie (The Boy). He has trained at LAMDA, The National Youth Theatre, and Arts University Bournemouth.

With a strong background in both television and theatre, Brian can be seen in a range of projects including To England, With Love on Amazon Prime, and the upcoming releases of The Experiment and Grantchester Season 10. 

Alex Forni – Peter 
Alexander JC Forni trained in European Theatre Arts (Acting) at Rose Bruford in the UK, and the Insitute del Teatre in Spain. He also trained with Stone Crabs Theatre Company, where he won a young directors award for his adaptation of Harold Pinter’s ‘Mountain Language’.

Alexander has had many varied experiences on stage from performing in a renowned street theatre festival in Poland, to touring a show in Italy, as well as working within the theatrical fringe in London.

He has also worked as a Presenter, Actor and Scriptwriter for The Zoological Society of London (ZSL), and has performed in various short films and adverts including his recent credit in 'Lust' Directed by Hafeez Ur Rehman and appearing in an advert for Willen Hospice. He also appeared as Alfred Frankland in the play ‘It’s Not a Game For Girls’ Directed by Rosemary Hill for her sister company, Pepper’s Ghost. Alexander also enjoys working behind the scenes, having previously been a lighting operator for an international show at City Hall in London, Crew at the Albert Hall, ASM at the Savoy Theatre, London, as well as writing some of his own works. 

Apart from the Arts, Alexander's other love (excluding his family) is the outdoors and nature, where you can often find him writing poetry, playing sports, meditating or using his skills as a Reiki Master to help realign and heal one’s energies.

We hope you can join us at Stantonbury Theatre from 14^th – 17^th May to see this fantastic production and support local theatre and local artists.
Purchase your tickets today!

Studying this text for GCSE?

If you are studying ‘A Taste of Honey’ as your GCSE English Literature text, seeing it live on stage is a great way to gain a better appreciation of the play and to understand the characters, relationships and emotions. If you know someone studying this text, please forward our blog to them.