A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney

Author:Shelagh Delaney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2014-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

SCENE TWO

GEOFFREY dances in with a mop and bucket and begins to clean the place. JO dances back and sits on the table reading. She is wearing a long white housecoat and again, in reality, months have passed between this and the previous scene. Music out.

JO: “Ninth month, everything should now be in readiness for the little stranger.” Where did you find this book, Geoffrey? It reads like Little Women.

GEOF: I got it for fourpence off a book barrow.

JO: You’ve got terrible tendencies, haven’t you?

GEOF: How do you mean?

JO: You like everything to be just that little bit out of date, don’t you? Clothes, books, women.

GEOF: You’ve got no choice, have you? I mean you all start by living in the past. Well look, it’s all around you, isn’t it?

JO: I wonder if we ever catch up with ourselves?

GEOF: I don’t know.

JO: Now you’re a real Edwardian, aren’t you?

GEOF: What’s that?

JO: A proper Ted! And me, I’m contemporary.

GEOF: God help us!

JO: I really am, aren’t I? I really do live at the same time as myself, don’t I?

GEOF: Do you mind? I’ve just done all that. Oh come on! Get off!

[He pushes her with the mop.]

JO: Hey, hey!

GEOF: Women!

JO: You haven’t noticed my home dressmaking.

GEOF: No. I’ve been trying to ignore it. What is it?

JO: A house-coat.

GEOF: It looks more like a badly tailored shroud.

JO: What the well-dressed expectant mother is wearing this year. I feel wonderful. Aren’t I enormous?

GEOF: You’re clever, aren’t you?

JO: What’s in the oven, Geoffrey?

GEOF: You what?

JO: What’s cooking?

GEOF: A cake.

JO: Mm, you’re wonderful, aren’t you?

GEOF: Pretty good.

JO: I know, you make everything work. The stove goes, now we eat. You’ve reformed me, some of the time at any rate. [GEOFFREY shifts the sofa. There is old rubbish and dirt under it.]

GEOF: Oh, Jo!

JO: I wondered where that had got to.

GEOF: Now you know. It’s disgusting, it really is.

JO: Oh Geof, the bulbs I brought with me!

GEOF: Haven’t you shifted the sofa since then?

JO: They never grew.

GEOF: No, I’m not surprised.

JO: They’re dead. It makes you think, doesn’t it?

GEOF: What does?

JO: You know, some people like to take out an insurance policy, don’t they?

GEOF: I’m a bit young for you to take out one on me.

JO: No. You know, they like to pray to the Almighty just in case he turns out to exist when they snuff it.

GEOF [brushing under the sofa]: Well, I never think about it. You come, you go, it’s simple.

JO: It’s not, it’s chaotic—a bit of love, a bit of lust and there you are. We don’t ask for life, we have it thrust upon us.

GEOF: What’s frightened you? Have you been reading the newspapers?

JO: No, I never do. Hold my hand, Geof.

GEOF: Do you mind? Halfway through this?

JO: Hold my hand.

[He does.]

GEOF: Hey, Jo. Come on, silly thing, it’s all right. Come on there.

JO: You’ve got nice hands, hard. You know I used to try and hold my mother’s hands, but she always used to pull them away from me. So silly really.

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