We traveled by train into the city yesterday, to take in a theatrical performance of Six.  My first experience of the city post-pandemic, the streets and buildings seemed frozen in time, by comparison to my memory of the bustle of crowds and of the traffic congestion.  The dampened vibe was surreal.  Much has changed due to the impact of covid upon work-life, and more rapid change is in the offing due to a warming climate.  Every place will be affected, big cities in particular.

The production of Six was spectacular.  “Spectacle” is a term of understatement.  The 90 minute performance was a presentation of the individual experience of the six wives of Henry VIII of England.  Henry was an entitled lout, as is often the case when one is born to wealth and privilege.  After all “the king” by definition is “above the law,” the decider who defines the law as it applies to his royal personage.  Here in America we have experienced this attitude in our recent past.  “I’m the decider, and I decide what is best.” was spoken by George W. Bush in 2006.  The most egregious example of unbridled male hubris though is surely our late President Trump, who yet remains free of accountability.

All six of the women, Henry’s wives were worse off for her entanglement with King Henry.  Henry, helpless to resist his libido, a fickle victim of his boredom, repudiated each of the six female queens in turn, some by beheading.  It is quite a story.

What was my take-away?  Self-respect, in fact, the very achievement of a self, depends upon the acknowledgment of others.  I am, who-I-have-become, by virtue of my engagement with you, and with every other human being who has crossed my path over the course of my life.  Was there regret on behalf of the females who aspired to ascendancy, to queendom in Henry’s court?  Of course.  The anticipated benefits were illusory.  Henry was incapable of love. 

(The “philosophical elephant in the room” is whether Henry could have behaved in any other way considering who he was?  Could each of the ill fated female would-be queens reacted any other way, given the circumstances of their time?  Is “free will” a bona fide illusion, a necessary fiction?)

The musical play finds redemption from inevitable existential funk, when the six ex-wives decide that they do not need Henry’s love to feel validated as people.  They sing together a concluding anthem, re-imagining their lives, how their story would have turned out if Henry had not been involved.

Enjoy!

 

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