Theatre Review by our Theatre Reviewer Jonah Zalick #OnePlymouth
You may have studied Henry VIII at your GCSEs; what’s arguably most memorable about him at that level is his marital history. Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived goes the iconic rhyme. However, SIX takes our history lessons and tells another side of the story.
With book, lyrics and music written by Lucy Moss and Toby Barlow, SIX is a musical reclamation of the stories of Henry VIII’s wives. Framed as a concert, the wives, as a spunky girl group, perform and sing about their experiences as the lovers and spouses of Henry VIII in a competition to see who struggled the most, to see who should become the lead singer of their group. As the show goes on, though, they prove to us that they were clearly much more than their negative experiences and connections to the former king.
The cast is full of astoundingly talented vocalists with brilliant acting skills, but none caught my eye more than Shekinah McFarlane portraying Anna of Cleves, who was divorced by Henry when he deemed her ‘unattractive’. McFarlane played Anna with an unashamed and positively enviable swagger that a lot of us aspire to have, and her performance of Anna’s solo track ‘Get Down’ had such an infectious energy that you’d be wanting to get up and join in.
Tim Deiling’s work as lighting designer and Emma Bailey’s work as set designer in SIX was phenomenal – I thought that the multicoloured lights framed to look like stained-glass windows in a place of worship was a brilliant concept, and beautifully pleasing to the eye. With the transformation of the colourful rays from architecture to a crown, as well as bright lettering, eras and aesthetics were melded together and I truly felt like I was at a modern concert watching the 16th century’s hottest girl group.
Though Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr could be said to be most known as having been wed to Henry VIII, SIX conveys that they were much more. They had passions, careers, lives and loves separate from the man they are associated with, and none were more relevant or more important than the other. They were individuals, deserving of their own merit, whose struggles aren’t comparable. SIX was a fantastic audial and visual experience, as well as a relevant lesson on feminism and not conflating your struggles with others’ to determine ‘who had it worst’.
Theatre Review by Jonah Zalick #OnePlymouth
