Joan Maud Littlewood was an English theatre director who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and is best known for her work in developing the Theatre Workshop. She has been called "The Mother of Modern Theatre". Her production of Oh, What a Lovely War! in 1963 was one of her more influential pieces.
Theatre Workshop is a theatre group whose long-serving director was Joan Littlewood. Many actors of the 1950s and 1960s received their training and first exposure with the company, many of its productions were transferred to theatres in the West End, and some, such as Oh, What a Lovely War! and A Taste of Honey, were made into films.
Kitchen sink realism is a British cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose protagonists usually could be described as "angry young men" who were disillusioned with modern society. It used a style of social realism which depicted the domestic situations of working-class Britons, living in cramped rented accommodation and spending their off-hours drinking in grimy pubs, to explore controversial social and political issues ranging from abortion to homelessness. The harsh, realistic style contrasted sharply with the escapism of the previous generation's so-called "well-made plays".
A Taste of Honey is the first play by the British dramatist Shelagh Delaney, written when she was 19. It was adapted into an award-winning film of the same title in 1961.
John Herman Merivale was a Canadian-born British theatre actor, and occasional supporting player in British films.
Murray Melvin was an English actor. He was best known for his acting work with Joan Littlewood, Ken Russell and Stanley Kubrick. He was the author of two books: The Art of Theatre Workshop (2006) and The Theatre Royal, A History of the Building (2009).
A Taste of Honey is a 1961 British New Wave drama film directed by Tony Richardson and starring Rita Tushingham, Dora Bryan, Robert Stephens and Murray Melvin. It is an adaptation of the 1958 play of the same name by Shelagh Delaney. Delaney wrote the screenplay with Richardson, who had directed the original Broadway production of the play in 1960. As with the play, the film is an exemplar of a social realist genre of British media known as kitchen sink realism.
Avis Bunnage was an English actress of film, stage and television.
Frances Cuka was an English actress, principally on television, whose career spanned over sixty years. In her later years, she was best known for playing Grandma in the sitcom Friday Night Dinner from 2011 to 2018.
Selina Jane Cadell is an English actress. She is the younger sister of actor Simon Cadell and granddaughter of actress Jean Cadell. She is the great niece of the Scottish artist Francis Cadell.
Privates on Parade: A Play with Songs in Two Acts is a 1977 farce by English playwright Peter Nichols, with music by Denis King. The drama draws upon Nichols' own experiences in the real-life Combined Services Entertainment, the postwar successor to ENSA, Entertainments National Service Association. The play is noteworthy for, inter alia, a series of musical numbers, performed by the male lead, parodying the style of such performers as Noël Coward, Marlene Dietrich and Carmen Miranda.
Maureen St John Pook, known professionally as Maureen Pryor, was an Irish-born English character actress who made stage, film, and television appearances. The Encyclopaedia of British Film noted, "she never played leads, but, with long rep and TV experience, she was noticeable in all she did."
Phyllis Edith Mary Blythe, known professionally as Jenny Laird, was a British stage, film and television actress.
Frederick Combs was an American film, theater and television actor, playwright and director.
Shelagh Delaney FRSL was an English dramatist and screenwriter. Her debut work, A Taste of Honey (1958), has been described by Michael Patterson as "probably the most performed play by a post-war British woman playwright".
Sally Smith is a British actress born in Godalming, Surrey. Although primarily a star of both dramatic and musical theatre she appeared in several films and dozens of television shows.
Selina Todd is an English historian and writer. From 2015, she has been Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. Todd's research focuses on the history of the working-class, women and feminism in modern Britain. Since 2017, Todd has also been president of the Socialist Educational Association.
The Art of Success is a play by the British playwright Nick Dear, centered on the life of William Hogarth. It premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986, with Michael Kitchen playing Hogarth and Niamh Cusack playing his wife, Jane. It premiered to an American audience at the Manhattan Theatre Club in December 1989, with Tim Curry playing Hogarth and Mary-Louise Parker playing Jane. Both productions were directed by Adrian Noble.
Rowan Robinson is an English actress. She is known for her roles in the film A Haunting in Venice (2023) and the ITV thriller Passenger (2024).
