25th November was the day Shelagh Delaney was born in 1938 at Hope Hospital, and has been designated this year as the first Salford Shelagh Delaney Day, after a campaign by resident Louise Woodward-Styles.
There's already been a performance of Delaney's The Lion In Love this week (see here) and other events, but Tuesday evening sees the main Delaney happening at Salford Arts Theatre, which the Salford Star understands is now sold out.
The night begins at 5pm with the launch of an exhibition of Art Inspired by Shelagh Delaney, and this is followed at 6:30pm by A Slice of Life by the Young Performers Company looking `at the lives of Salford children living in a city that has changed and is ever changing'.
At 6:55pm, top Salford poet, JB Barrington, will be performing a new piece of work, specially created for Shelagh Delaney Day...
"I was asked by Scott Berry to write a poem to celebrate the life of Shelagh Delaney and perform it at Salford Arts Theatre as part of the Shelagh Delaney Day" JB told the Salford Star "I had met Scott through a film I'm currently involved with called Strange-Days in Strange-Ways, directed by Manchester film maker Nathan Cunningham. As soon as Scott asked me I didn't have to even think about it...I just said `Yes'.
"A Taste Of Honey is one of my favourite films" he added "and, although originally written as a play in the late 50s and then eventually filmed in the early 60s, it still reminds me of the Salford I grew up in the 70s and perfectly records a time when the working classes were largely forgotten about and conveniently ignored - not much changed there then....even all these years later."
For those who won't be there, JB has given readers a sneak preview of four lines from the poem...
"The working class weren't represented
the middle class graced every stage
The 'anyone for tennis' considered a menace
the young girl at eighteen years of age...."
Following JB, the Salford Theatre Company, in association with London's Group Theatre, will be performing a drama based on Delaney's unfinished work, Now and Then...
"The text describes a couple based in a Victorian house" states the Company "We see the same characters and their reaction to the 1900s, the 1960s and present time. What is highlighted is how each era uses economy, debt and systems of HP. The constant dichotomy of borrow/debt in climates of low income and high prices impinge upon the couple. Each system gives birth to a unique reaction of cultural response. Each system ultimately ends up as just another system of oppression on the family structure. The question arises, `What would be an alternative solution?'"
At some point during the evening, the winning entry of the Shelagh Delaney writing competition will also be read out, and the Day will be completed at 8pm when a screening of Dance With A Stranger will be shown. With an acclaimed script by Delaney, it's the story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, and stars Miranda Richardson and Rupert Everett.
For those who can't get into the Salford Arts Theatre events, there's plenty of stuff happening elsewhere. On Friday 28th November at 3:30pm on Duchy Road Playing Fields, pupils from Summerville Road Primary School will be celebrating the life of Delaney with a Lantern Display, led by Life Coach Kate Marlow.
And on Friday evening, there's a free screening of A Taste of Honey at 7.30pm in Eccles Town Hall, hosted by Eccles Community Hall Organisation, with an introduction by Salford and Eccles MP Hazel Blears, who featured as an `urchin' in the film. Tickets are available on the day from the venue for more details click here.
And finally, on November 29th and 30th there's a free exhibition of photos of the Salford landscape during the Sixties by Arthur Brougham at Salford Lads Club. It's open 11:30am-2pm on the Saturday and 12noon-3pm on the Sunday.
Perhaps the most poignant intro to the day is a tribute to Shelagh Delaney by her daughter Charlotte, posted on the official Shelagh Delaney day website, titled SHELAGH DELANEY, A TRUE REBEL...
"I was asked recently what effect A Taste of Honey had had on my life. All I could remember were a handful of idiot teachers who said things like: 'I bet you want to be a writer when you grow up, don't you?' and 'Do you want to be famous, like your mum?' Then there were the others who insisted on asking me to wax lyrical about the symbolism of a bare light bulb in a squalid flat. Of course there is no symbolism; it's exactly the right thing in the right place. Had it been an exquisite Tiffany lamp well that would be a different matter.
"My mum rarely talked about Honey except to tell me she'd refused yet another request to mount a production of it in the Capital. Most of the articles I have read have concentrated on that iconic moment in her life and why it was never repeated. The fact that she continued to work, to write, her whole life, is apparently dwarfed by a lack of 'fame' which is, as we know, the currency used to measure a person's talent these days.
"When she was made an honorary member of the Mark Twain society in 1977, she felt immensely proud; when the many radio plays she wrote in the latter years of her life were produced, she was immensely proud; when Dance With a Stranger was critically acclaimed, she was immensely proud; when she held any of her three grandchildren in her arms, she was immensely proud and, when Alicia and I set up Reel Rebels Radio, she was immensely proud.
"My mum enjoyed much of the success Honey brought to her door: it gave her the freedom to explore the world, with me in tow usually; the money was nice and she was always generous with it and she met many of her heroes: Stirling Moss; Studs Terkel; Karen Blixen; Paul Newman; Katharine Hepburn the list goes on and on. However, she did not want to be tied down to an idea of who she was 'then' and I think any of the people who continued to have a friendship with her after this brief moment in time, would agree. In this short film by Ken Russell it's plain to see that even as a young woman, she had far more on her mind than 'how to be famous'.
"My mum was able, better than anybody else I've ever met, to live in the present moment and although she was proud of Honey's success and happy to leave behind a body of work that included it, she was no Miss Havisham, lost in the past and longing for its return. One of the main reasons she never allowed a big production of Honey to be done in London in her lifetime was because she couldn't bear the thought of those relentless and predictable questions and those relentless quotes from people who had been there but who had little to say about her in the here and now.
'When I'm dead you can take care of A Taste of Honey,' she said. 'And send that Morrissey chap something from me.'
Done and done."
The full version of this Tribute is on the official Shelagh Delaney Day website with more details of all the events click here
See also previous related Salford Star articles...
* The Politics of Shelagh Delaney Day - click here
* Salford Mayor and Council Should Apologise to Shelagh Delaney - click here
* Salford Rebel Sister Shelagh Delaney by Nigel Pivaro - click here
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