Random Reviews by Rachel: "A Taste Of Honey" Analysis
Heyyyyyyyy! Wanna read my homework? lol
haha ok, but really, I’m in a Script Analysis class at Berklee right now and this week we had to read the play “A Taste of Honey”, which I had never heard of before (I’m a terrible thespian). If you click on the pic above it’ll link you to where you can purchase your own copy of the play or purchase it for kindle (did you know there’s a super easy ‘kindle for mac’ app you can download to read things on your laptop? it’s so easy!). Here’s the teeniest blurb on it from my course material: “A Taste of Honey made waves in 1958 by addressing race, class, and sexual orientation within a story of someone trapped by her low social status. A Taste of Honey was one of the first so-called kitchen sink plays, set in realistic (and often decrepit) living environs (apartments, homes, yards, or institutions). It became England's most widely-produced play by a woman and was adapted into film in 1961.”
We were asked to discuss how we feel the play has aged, and I felt compelled to open up the conversation beyond my class. A lot of really important conversations began in 2020 in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, and a lot of the racism & discrimination that runs rampant in the entertainment industry, and, in my circles, specifically theatre, was finally exposed and discussed openly. Now that the industry is re-opening in a post-pandemic world, a lot of the conversations are fizzling away with far less change than was promised on social media last year *cough - virtue signaling - cough* These topics are sensitive and challenging, but the most important things in life almost always are. I know I certainly still have a lot to learn and a lot to unlearn, so I hope you’ll read my little analysis of the play and share your thoughts with me in the comments as part of a healthy, constructive conversation. It’s only three paragraphs, so certainly only the very beginning of a much larger discussion!
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Groundbreaking as it was in its day, depicting the lives of an unwed mother, a Black man, and a gay man, Delaney's attempt to show the reality of casual racism and homophobia in her time can seem problematic to readers today. How has the play aged in your opinion, and does the content compromise the play's success now?
Reading A Taste of Honey for the first time in 2021, the racism and homophobia comes across as anything but casual. It is glaring, despicable and deeply upsetting. To simply say it’s “cringey” would be dismissive, but I was certainly visibly cringing throughout a large portion of the play as I digested this slice of life from 1958. The hate, discrimination and judgment so flippantly tossed about by the main characters with zero remorse whatsoever is absolutely problematic. However, that’s exactly why I believe this play could still be an important production included in a modern theatre’s lineup for their 2021-2022 seasons - WITH a trigger warning for the content entailed. Racism and homophobia (among other forms of discrimination) WERE casual in the 1950s. It was casual and normal and expected. If you saw a problem with someone’s hateful commentary, YOU were seen as problematic. Today we’d like to believe that this sort of prejudice is no longer tolerated and no longer casual, but that’s unfortunately not at all true.
The Civil Rights Movement taking place across the Atlantic, right as A Taste of Honey was becoming England’s most widely-produced play by a woman in the late 50s/early 60s, did not magically instill equality for all, despite what an American K-12 education in the 90s & 00s impressed upon us (white) millennials to believe. There have been & continue to be unspeakable, heartbreaking, blatant hate crimes fueled by racism & homophobia committed in the last 60 years, that (for the most part) society as a whole can all agree upon being wrong - and just “wrong” feels far too small a word: evil, terrifying, cruel, are a bit more adequate. However, it is the rampant casual microaggressions born from our implicit biases that are often still either unnoticed or swept under the rug that lead me to believe A Taste of Honey is still relevant today. These day-to-day prejudices are dangerous. It’s not enough to brush off an older person’s casual bigotries with the excuse that “times have changed.” They haven’t changed enough, and the older generations* who raised us have subliminally instilled their biases in us in ways we may not even recognize. We also need to remember that Delaney was born in 1938, only 19 when her play premiered. Many of her peers and the audiences for this play are still alive and actively STILL VOTING. The turn out among older voters**, especially in smaller races between each presidential election, is far greater than the turn out among Millennials and Gen Z. Therefore, it is Delaney’s generation electing most of our present day lawmakers. How can we act surprised when history repeats itself if we continue to just passively allow history to keep repeating itself?
The arts and media play an invaluable role in reflecting society as it is in order to help shape the society that we want. If a theatre were to put on a production of A Taste of Honey today, with the appropriate trigger warnings and perhaps a talk-back after each performance, I believe it could inspire positive change: it could awaken activism in an otherwise dormant young audience member and peel the scales off the eyes of an older viewer who suddenly recognizes their own unconscious biases after witnessing the harsh, casual dialogue in A Taste of Honey. An artistic director of course needs to evaluate who their audience is and if this play would be effective, and, if this play were to take the place of a work written by a person of color, a member of the LGBTQ community or another marginalized group, it would be best to give new voices and stories a platform instead.
*I want to state that I fully recognize I am speaking in generalizations here. I do not mean to imply that all older people are “bad” and all young people are “good”. That’s soooooo not true! Woof. I have had really beautiful, challenging, productive conversations with my grandma lately (who coincidentally was also born in 1938). People of all ages & backgrounds have unconscious biases, and all of us will always have more to learn (and unlearn) + room to grow.
**According to census.gov, voter turnout for the 2020 Presidential Election increased as age, educational attainment and income increased. This stands as yet another reason we need to make the arts, in this conversation specifically theatre, more accessible. Theatre would be (and should be) an indispensable resource for people in underprivileged communities & could serve as a tangible educational tool. But that’s a continued conversation for another time 💪🏼