Til Death: the Six Wives of Henry VIII - The Best History Lesson on Earth

I have to say, I was a bit concerned when I was going in to this one. How the heck is one woman going to play seven different people without losing the audience entirely? Right from the first scene when the first wife falls in to Purgatory I was entranced.

As the play goes a long each wife falls in to Purgatory to await the coming of Henry, their beloved king. There is spite, joy and curiosity as the woman meet each other. After they have all settled in, a voice from above announces that only one wife may escort Henry to “Royal Heaven” and that they must decide among themselves who it will be. What follows is a rich history and wildly heart breaking, breathtaking and hilarious account of each wife’s lineage, love story, and ultimately death story in an endeavour to convince the other wives of their right to sit by Henry’s side for the rest of eternity.

Tara Travis plays each wife with a different voice, different body language and even different stage placement. Fringe Volunteer Mariah exclaimed, “she did such a great job with the characters, I could still see them standing on the stage even after she moved on to another one!” Most delightful was Anne Boleyn, who was just a head being passed off and tossed from wife to wife.

I am not an actor, nor have I ever been an actor, but I’m pretty sure what Tara did up there was performance gold, and incredibly challenging. She brought in her rich background in both acting and puppeteering to create a stage filled with characters with just herself and a nighty. I think most impressively the playwright Ryan Gladstone really did his homework here. The stories are historically accurate and are brought to life with Tara’s physicality and voice. This show was the world’s most entertaining history lesson - check it out!