Shelagh Delaney's play A Taste of Honey is an influential example of kitchen sink realism, a British cultural movement characterized by playwrights', writers', filmmakers' and artists' depictions of gritty working-class life and social issues.
Also known as kitchen sink drama, kitchen sink realism emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s with plays, novels, photography, and films that reacted against the prevailing escapist British culture of the post-war era. Kitchen sink realism aimed to present a more realistic and unvarnished portrayal of everyday life with a focus on the struggles and hardships faced by the working-class population. Referring to the depiction of mundane domestic settings, the term "kitchen sink" first arose in the visual arts in the 1950s to describe social realist scenes of domestic life.
Works associated with the kitchen sink movement tend to explore the lives of working-class protagonists and families, their economic challenges, limited opportunities, and the bleak conditions in which they live. With many works set in the North of England, kitchen sink realism is also notable for capturing the authentic language, accents, and dialects of the usually poor characters depicted. Works within the genre often highlight social issues such as class inequality, access to education, and the limitations placed on people by their social and economic circumstances.
With its depiction of a frustrated working-class protagonist, John Osborne's 1956 Look Back in Anger is considered by many to be the first kitchen sink realist play. Tony Richardson's films Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, both of which were adapted from literary works by Alan Sillitoe, and Richardson's adaptation of A Taste of Honey, are also emblematic of the movement.
