(Matt Wolf’s article ran in the Telegraph, 11/21.)
Shelagh Delaney made an immediate splash with her first play, A Taste of Honey, written in 1958 when the Salford-born bus conductor’s daughter was just 19. And there was more than a trace of Delaney’s own life to her gritty yet compassionate portrait of the 18-year-old Jo, who is forced upon becoming pregnant to make her own way in life with little cushion beyond a brisk, street-wise wit. Writing largely in reaction to the work of her dramatic predecessor, Terence Rattigan, Delaney wanted as honest a portrait as possible of lives lived at the margins, and if that meant including such topics as homosexuality and illegitimacy, so be it.