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| "Six" (West End, 2021) |
Trigger warning: a statement cautioning that content (as in a text, video, or class) may be disturbing or upsetting - Merriam WebsterI know little about Six, a British musical which recently opened on Broadway following an eighteen month postponement. What I do know is that it is a celebration of the wives of King Henry VIII, each of them modeled after a contemporary pop star. It is presentational, like one of those rock music competition television programs.
The suggestion that the show requires a warning of disturbing content led to a great deal of theater twitter tweeting, much of it centered on how dumb a person needs to be not to be aware that Anne Boelyn and Catherine Howard were beheaded, or that Henry was generally an abusive husband.
Sure, I know who they represent, I do Shakespeare. I don’t look down upon those who do not.
I have thought a lot about trigger warnings, and I have decided they don’t trouble me, and they may help those who could use such advance warning. “This program makes light of spousal abuse and murder, please be advised.”
Dear Evan Hansen was part of our subscription package for the KeyBank Broadway series two years ago, and apparently it was a popular show with “the kids.” We took the family. My stomach bottomed out when one of the characters dies by suicide. I had no idea. My teenage children have exeperience with suicide, it’s not some abstract concept. It made for a difficult evening.
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| "Dear Evan Hansen" (Broadway Tour, 2019) |
This school year, we have introduced a warning to the final scenes of Romeo and Juliet our actor-teachers perform in the classroom. Surely, you ask, they know Romeo and Juliet take their own lives. No, maybe they don’t. Some schools bring us in before they have finished the text. And many students know someone who has died by suicide, and watching that act performed with the degree of realism our actors bring to the performance may be troubling, whether they know the ending of the play or not.
So yeah, I fail to see how a content warning in any way mars one’s enjoyment of a performance. That is unless you are the kind of person who thinks they are stupid in which case I might ask, why so sensitive?
If you don’t know about the bearings, that’s on you. However, I found the handling of still born deaths to be way too casual.
ReplyDeleteSo, triggers? Yeah. It’s got a few of those.
We just saw it last week and it’s played very much as an X Factor, (insert country here)’s Got Talent show. Very frothy and light hearted. Then it hits you in the head with death and abuse.
Sorry, for “bearings” read “beheadings.”
ReplyDeleteI got it. What I don't understand is why you wrote it three times.
DeleteI do not know. I only hit “publish” once.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know this article is slightly older but I definitely agree that musicals should consider having trigger warnings visible when you book tickets - I'm kinda thankful that I have already seen it but both of my parents asked me if I wanted to go see six with them as a fun family activity and while I'm down to go watch theatre with my family, I'm conscious that most of the general public has seen it presented as a comedic and generally upbeat musical about powerful women. I'd almost say the same thing about everybody's talking about Jamie, which while it is one of my favourite musicals I always saw it advertised as a upbeat musical about being who you are and about coming into your own as a gay person. I don't know why but I genuinely didn't expect the homophobic/neglectful dad and it hit hard when I first saw it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this. I wrote a prequel to Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" which is a light and fanciful comedy which ends on an unhappy note -- which makes sense, if you know the main characters are at odds with each other at the beginning of MAAN. I heard a bachelorette party attended one performance and I think they left depressed. In some cases it's hard to know what to warn people about, I am often surprised. However, I do think we all, those of us who put stories out in the world, can do a better job of being mindful about our messaging.
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