In October, because we really do need 10 people to read Allelujah!, we read Travels with my Aunt, which was a much easier read and fun!
In November I again propose Allelujah! (see October for more details). We read it with the ECC group and it was incredibly complicated to allocate parts even though there were more than 10 of us! But the group enjoyed it and I'm sure you will. But, advance warning, it is almost IMPOSSIBLE for me to judge how many lines any person is given at any time ... so PLEASE bear with me if the allocation seems unequal, it really REALLY isn't personal! It's just REALLY hard to work out!
The alternative option is A Taste of Honey if we are fewer than 10!
A Taste of Honey is Shelagh Delaney's first play, written when she was 19. It was initially intended as a novel, but she turned it into a play because she hoped to revitalise British theatre and to address social issues that she felt were not being presented.
The play was first produced by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop and was premiered at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, a small fringe theatre in London, on 27 May 1958, and was adapted into a film in 1961 starring Rita Tusshingham and Dora Bryan.
A Taste of Honey is set in Salford in North West England in the 1950s. Jo, a seventeen-year-old working class girl, lives with her mother, Helen, who leaves Jo alone in their new flat after she begins a relationship with Peter, a rich lover who is younger than her. At the same time Jo begins a romantic relationship with Jimmy, a black sailor. He proposes marriage but then goes to sea, leaving Jo pregnant and alone.
Characters
- Helen: A hardened, working class single mother and alcoholic.
- Josephine: Helen's teenage daughter, known as 'Jo', raised solely by Helen.
- Peter: Helen's younger, wealthy boyfriend from London.
- The Boy: Also known as Jimmy, a black sailor. Jo falls in love with him and becomes pregnant.
- Geoffrey: An art student in his early twenties who becomes Jo's roommate and friend.
