Fringe 2024 June Carter Cash The Woman, Her Music and Me The Dissection Room 9th August Review
"June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me" is at the Dissection Room, Summerhall from 6 to 24 August, and if you have any interest in American country (old-time) and one of its most iconic stars and her famous family of musicians, then this show is going to be worth a visit.
After the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this World Premiere show, a National Theatre of Scotland and Grid Iron Theatre Company co-production goes on throughout September.
Be sure what you are booking for though, as this show is not a straight-forward re-telling of the June Carter Cash story. Instead, this production by Charlene Boyd (writer/performer) and Cora Bissett (director) weaves the story of a divorced and now single parent mother of two children now struggling to survive economically and mentally in her run-down council house in Glasgow with that of another divorced woman (twice) who lived over 3,000 miles away, her idol June Carter Cash.
This is, surprisingly, Charlene Boyd’s first written work for theatre and it is skilful in its use of how this semi-autobiographical story merges almost seamlessly into the well-known and not so well-known facts of June Carter Cash. Through Charlene we follow June Carter’s star rising from obscurity in the “Carter Family” show to creating a new character for herself on stage where her talents, comedy, and music saw her become the “Star of the show”.
Great attention to authentic details have gone into the visuals of this show and every item on this set is here for not only a purpose, but also it is part of the unfolding story told through the eyes of Charlene/June and the live music/country band threesome.
This is also a story here that country music fans may not want to hear, as we find out through June Carter Cash’s own life and Charlene’s personal experiences and those of people that she talked to in the making of this show, just what a misogynistic world every level of country music in all parts of its industry was in June’s time and how little has changed today. Here women still all too often have little choice in how they are expected to conform to perceived norms both as performers on-stage and women off-stage. These expectations we find are not only confined to the home of country music but so much of Charlene’s own life back in Glasgow where she struggles to combine working with raising her own family.
Charlene Boyd is an experienced stage performer and this shows at every level in this story. Cora Bissett is also an experienced director and together they have created here a work that is full of honesty and full of surprises.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
After the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this World Premiere show, a National Theatre of Scotland and Grid Iron Theatre Company co-production goes on throughout September.
Be sure what you are booking for though, as this show is not a straight-forward re-telling of the June Carter Cash story. Instead, this production by Charlene Boyd (writer/performer) and Cora Bissett (director) weaves the story of a divorced and now single parent mother of two children now struggling to survive economically and mentally in her run-down council house in Glasgow with that of another divorced woman (twice) who lived over 3,000 miles away, her idol June Carter Cash.
This is, surprisingly, Charlene Boyd’s first written work for theatre and it is skilful in its use of how this semi-autobiographical story merges almost seamlessly into the well-known and not so well-known facts of June Carter Cash. Through Charlene we follow June Carter’s star rising from obscurity in the “Carter Family” show to creating a new character for herself on stage where her talents, comedy, and music saw her become the “Star of the show”.
Great attention to authentic details have gone into the visuals of this show and every item on this set is here for not only a purpose, but also it is part of the unfolding story told through the eyes of Charlene/June and the live music/country band threesome.
This is also a story here that country music fans may not want to hear, as we find out through June Carter Cash’s own life and Charlene’s personal experiences and those of people that she talked to in the making of this show, just what a misogynistic world every level of country music in all parts of its industry was in June’s time and how little has changed today. Here women still all too often have little choice in how they are expected to conform to perceived norms both as performers on-stage and women off-stage. These expectations we find are not only confined to the home of country music but so much of Charlene’s own life back in Glasgow where she struggles to combine working with raising her own family.
Charlene Boyd is an experienced stage performer and this shows at every level in this story. Cora Bissett is also an experienced director and together they have created here a work that is full of honesty and full of surprises.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com