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Shelagh Delaney

SHELAGH DELANEY

  (1939 - 2011)
Nationality:    English
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Sayle Screen Ltd  US representative Susan Schulman Literary agency

Shelagh Delaney was born in 1939 in the City of Salford, Lancashire, where a Taste of Honey is set. She failed her 11+ examination, which would have enabled her to get into the grammar school, and attended Broughton Secondary School instead. It was at Brought on School that she saw her first play an amateur performance of Shakespeare's Othello. She was twelve at the time and the play made a great impression on her. at fifteen she was transferred to the grammar school where she passed five O levels. after leaving school she held a variety of jobs in Salford; shop assistant, clerk in a milk depot, usherette, but her driving ambition was always to write. When she was seventeen, she began a Taste of Honey as a novel but realised that it would be better as a play. the reason she gives for changing from the novel to Drama is interesting; she objected that 'North County people are shown as gormless, whereas in actual fact they are very alive and cynical' (quoted from an interview with Laurence Kitchen, 1959). She saw a production of a play entitled Variations on a theme by Terence Rattigan, which she considered bland and trivial, and was convinced that she could do better. So she took a fortnight off work to adapt her novel into a play. In 1958, a Taste of Honey was accepted by Joan Littlewood, a famous director, who strongly believed that plays should be about ordinary people, not genteel middle-classes portrayed by writers like Rattigan. It opened in the east end of London in May 1958, transferring to the West end early the following year, where it enjoyed a long run and won several awards. the critic and film director Lindsay Anderson called it 'a work of complete, exhilarating originality.' In 1960 a Taste of Honey was staged in New York and won a Drama prize. Two years later Shelagh wrote the screenplay for the film version, which won an academy award. at the age of 23, she had become one of the most famous writers of her time. Since then her writing has shown remarkable versatility. In 1963, she produced a collection of short stories entitled Sweetly Sings the Donkey, several television plays, among them Did your Nanny Come from Bergen? (1970), and St Martin's Summer (1974), award-winning scripts such as Charley Bubbles and Dance with a Stranger (1982), and radio plays such as So Does the Nightingale (1980).

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below is a list of Shelagh Delaney's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Don't Worry About Matilda         House That Jack Built, The         Lion In Love, The         Taste Of Honey, A

Don't Worry About Matilda

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
broadcast 1983

1st Produced:
London    1987

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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House That Jack Built, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
televised 1977

1st Produced:
New York    1979

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Duckworth, London, 1977   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

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Further Reference:
-

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Lion In Love, The

Lion In Love, The
nothing can be more fatal to peace than the ill assorted marriages into which rash love may lead

Notes:
music by Monty Norman

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  7            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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Taste Of Honey, A

Taste Of Honey, A
about the adolescent Jo and her relationships with those about her - her irresponsible, roving mother Helen and her mum's newly acquired drunken husband, the black sailor who leaves her pregnant and Geoffrey the homosexual art student who moves in to help with the baby. It is also about Jo's unshakeable optimism throughout her trials.This story of a mother and daughter relationship (imitated in other British plays since) set in working class Manchester continues to enthral new generations of readers and audiences.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Theatre Workshop

1st Published:
Methuen Drama    978-0413316806

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama 2 act. - - Gay, theme/character, full length

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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