Six - Teen Edition

Six - Teen Edition– “Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived”. From Tudor Queens to Pop Icons, the cast of six take to the mic to remix five hundred years of historical heartbreak as the wives of Henry VIII into a celebration of 21st-century girl power!   

Very cleverly the company produced a dual programme for the two shows they produced in one week. The very simple set was made up with raised rostra for the 4-piece band behind the performance space surrounded by black flats with star-like lights.  Great for the stage crew.  Careful consideration had been given to the mood lighting for each wife.  The sound mix was very good.  Costumes were innovative and suited each character perfectly. The ‘holsters’ for the microphones were well-used and very effective – this enabled the cast to use both hands with ease.

Yet another success for the director, Alick Leech and his excellent team headed by MD – Martin Bennetts and choreographer, Jemma Conner.  Jo Pawlowska (keyboard) took the lead, with the very talented,  all-female band which kept to the writers’ original concept.  Full marks to the band. The choreography was particularly impressive with, as far as I could tell, not a foot out of place or should I say boot! The performance I saw was done by the Gold Team.   There were two teams of wives Gold and Amethyst – originally red and blue teams subsequently changed to yellow and purple but then as befits queens of the realm Gold and Amethyst! 

Izzy Palmer played the part of Catherine of Aragon with very expressive eyes and beautiful use of hands.  Alana Tonks in the role of Anne Boleyn gave a spirited performance of ‘Don’t Lose Ur Head’ with very expressive gestures.  Jane Seymour was a more difficult role in that whilst producing an heir she remained very emotional about her death – very well portrayed.  The introduction of Ann of Cleves by the wives singing ‘Haus of Holbein’ which they did with excellent German accents and clear pronunciation.  Worth stating here that the diction throughout was exemplary.  Anna of Cleves performed her song ‘Get Down’ with great fervour and intensity.  The contrast between Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr was more than just the change of capital letter.  Their costume style reflected the characters which Amelia Gonzalez and Liv Harder exploited in full during their songs. ‘All You Wanna Do’ was a strong dramatic rendition in contrast to the beautiful lyrical delivery of ‘I Don’t Need Your Love’ – great performances.

This cast of 6 extremely talented ladies captured the character and spirit of each of the wives.  Every time there was a solo the other five gave them unqualified support whilst remaining in character.  The show starts off as a competition to select which wife had put up with the most angst during their tenure whilst this is later abandoned, I would conclude that each and every performer was a star and portrayed their characters with skill and emotion.

All the diction was superb, all the singing was superb, all the dancing spot on and all the characterisations were excellent.  What more can one say.

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