Review – A TASTE OF HONEY at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Tuesday, June 17 to Saturday, June 21, 2014.

SHOCKING back in the late 1950s - but my how the world has changed and this is now dismally old hat almost six decades on.

When Shelagh Delaney, a bus inspector’s 18-year-old daughter, saw her landmark play debut in 1958, and then as a film two years later, she knew she had produced something that sent shivers right down the spine of Britain.

Although in my early teens at the time I can remember the furore it created with its powerful portrayal of working class life ‘oop north’ with an inter-racial romance, a sex and drink addicted mother and - in modern parlance - a gay flatmate.

‘Gay’ did have a different interpretation back then...

Christopher Hancock is the art student flatmate and the chemistry between him and pregnant teenager Jo (Rebecca Ryan) as he fussed around her and the dingy bedsit they occupied lifted spirits post-interval after a lukewarm first half.

The original had more lighter moments while here considerable reliance is placed upon the lecherous drunk Peter, played exquisitely by James Weaver, to acknowledge the comedy in the script. His encounters with Helen, Jo’s mother, were particular high-spots.

Although waif-like at times, Ryan’s schoolgirl Jo comes across as a headstrong madam following fast in the footsteps of her man-chasing mother, who is impressively played by Julie Riley, and it’s these two who stir up some of the original’s power.

Lekan Lawal’s sailor Jimmie is far from convincing though, which is a pity as his is the pivotal role as Jo and her conscience wrestle over whether she wants to give birth to a mixed-race baby and whether she will ever see him again.

Throughout there are musical breaks which were well sung and well performed, but although entertaining their purpose wasn’t all that clear.

The way society has changed in the intervening years meant there was little to shock this time round and in certain respects that is why, although the singing was in key, this revival falls a shade flat.