June Carter Cash: The Woman, her Music and Me is written by and stars Charlene Boyd. It’s a co-production between the National Theatre of Scotland and Grid Iron Theatre Company and is part of the ‘Made in Scotland’ showcase. It is an utterly engaging, theatrical, and musical delight. It has such charm that I was in tears from the pure joy of it all.
Charlene Boyd, dressed as June, greets the audience. The band, on an evocatively styled stage, are playing June’s back catalogue, so get there early. The dissection room is an awkward long, thin space, but Shona Reppe has designed an enchanting, immersive set, a visually rich evocation of June’s world: a mish-mash of tables, ironing board, boxes, etc. We can sit café style or in rows. In fact, it doesn’t matter where you sit as Cora Bissett directs this play with total aplomb, and Charlene talks directly to us, moving around the space, using props from the elaborate centrepieces, placing glasses on an audience member, jumping on a table, or diving headfirst into the washing machine, legs waving in the air, and we laugh, entranced.
Charlene does indeed tell us the story of June Carter Cash, the country music star often eclipsed by the fame and notoriety of her husband Johnny Cash. Not only does Charlene reclaim June’s achievements amongst the woeful chauvinism of the country music scene, but more importantly, they also tell us not only how but why they wrote this play. These parallels between Charlene’s life as an impoverished single parent and June’s life, who battled against the expectations of the woman’s role, divorce, and motherhood, are beautifully and truthfully drawn out. June Carter Cash: The Woman, her Music and Me doesn’t shy away from drawing comparisons with the past’s inherent sexism and modern society’s ‘silencing’ of women’s voices.
Charlene slips in and out of June’s persona, sings songs, and infects us with their enthusiasm for this groundbreaking musician. This charismatic actor has us totally hooked. There is even a guest appearance from the ‘Man in Black’ himself, embodied rather brilliantly by a huge double bass case.
The music is wonderful, touching, and rousing, and the musicians expertly voice many of the characters. Production values are spot on. I confess that I don’t even like country music, but I’d love to watch June Carter Cash: The Woman, her Music and Me again and again.
