Six of a kind

 

So here we are, the blog post about the last show that I was fortunate enough to see live (as there’s been so little theatre going in COVID times.) We went to see it in Edinburgh with our lovely friend, Phyl, in February 2020 and had a really nice time as we stayed overnight and had dinner out and went to see the Tom Hanks ‘Beautiful day in the neighborhood’ film(directed by Marielle Heller), which is almost ‘Ted Lasso’ levels of constant positivity, optimism and hope with Fred Rogers, who Hanks portrayed (although in both the Fred Rogers film and ‘Ted Lasso’, there is a certain level of nuance within the characters to add complexity and depth to their outlooks and behaviour.)  It’s so strange that think that less than two months after that Edinburgh trip, it would have seemed like an impossible or out of reach thing to stay somewhere overnight, travel on a bus, eat out or go to the cinema or theatre. This blog’s all about the musical ‘Six’, which tells the story of the six wives of Henry VIII but from a modernised, feminist perspective from their point of view to show that they were real people in their own right and that they’re more than just one word or phrase in the ‘divorced, beheaded, died’ rhyme. 

It also contains contemporary, modern sounding slang and music, as all six of them are modelled on and inspired by 21st century pop singers and the whole show is presented in the form of a pop/rock concert and the characters are presented as almost like a band, despite initially competing against each other about who had the saddest story or the most painful experience. ‘Six’ was written by Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow, who met at university, and premiered at the 2017 Edinburgh fringe festival. Several different styles of music are used throughout as each of the songs is a different genre and tells a different story with a different tone and even though some of the songs may sound catchy, upbeat and lively, there is often a much sadder, more serious or heartbreaking message contained in the lyrics. For instance, in Katherine Howard’s song, ‘All you wanna do’, there are several references to fairy stories and being ‘the fairest’ to depict not only how incredibly young she was when she was taken advantage of by older men but also how she was objectified and not seen as bringing anything to the table other than looks and how she was unfairly viewed as promiscuous, despite being taken advantage of. Some of the lyrics in the chorus are also repeated several times to emphasise the pattern, cycles and heartbreak that she went through, which makes the song much sadder than it initially sounds the first time you hear it. Some of the other songs in the musical include, ‘Six’, ‘Don’t lose your head’, ‘No way’, ‘Get down’, ‘Ex-wives’ and ‘I don’t need your love’(which has harmonies to die for.) There isn’t an interval in the show but they almost roughly split into two sections to put the first three queens and songs together, followed by the fourth, fifth and sixth queens and their songs, to try and reflect on, explore and subvert or challenge what you think of when you hear their names or what you’ve been taught in history class. Jane Seymour, who died giving birth to a son and is often described as the ‘one Henry truly loved’ sings a song called ‘Heart of stone’ which is the slowest song in the show but is also very moving and powerful. It’s also a clever, surprising and nuanced take on the expression ‘heart of stone’ as a lot of people would associate that phrase with being emotionless or unfeeling, whereas Jane’s song considers the expression in a more positive way by using the expression to describe a powerful, unconditional love and devotion and a loyal heart that will never stop loving to portray that as strong and brave, as those qualities haven’t always been associated with being strong or powerful. Also, there is something very unfair, sexist and troubling that at the time, the fact that Jane had a baby boy, whereas most of the other queens didn’t have sons, might have made Henry think of her in an extra special way or might have meant that she’d have been treated differently. 

There is also something really cool and genuinely feminist that they start off arguing and competing to see who had the hardest time and who suffered the most but they end up uniting and becoming a strong squad and team. This happens when they bond over their own, individual strengths and talents and the unfair things that happened to them all as they never needed a man and it never needed to be about a man at all, as they have their own stories and are worth so much more than being told as simply part of his story. #herstory

Thanks so much for reading these blogs about the shows I’ve seen and the programmes I’ve collected (with some diversions and distractions along the way.) Hope you’ve enjoyed them, thanks so much to everyone who’s stuck with the blog. <3