“Until death do you part” is a standard phrase in most wedding vows today, but it doesn’t seem to hold true in “Queens,” a historical drama about King Henry VIII and his wives that Shawano Community High School will perform this weekend.
Comedies and mysteries usually fill the fall slot of the SCHS performance schedule for the theater department, but director Alex Konen decided to go with something a little more dramatic where Henry has been trapped in purgatory for centuries, forced to relive the lives and deaths of each of his six wives, with each chapter being orchestrated by his court jester.
“It is King Henry trapped in purgatory, and he has spent the last 500-plus years watching his mistakes with each of his wives,” Konen said. “He decide to divorce the first one, which means ripping up the church — breaking up the Catholic Church and creating his own — and then getting rid of his second wife by accusing her of witchcraft.”
He noted that the playwright, Kristen Doherty, was historically accurate with the show. What stands out in the drama is that audiences get to see two versions of the king.
“There’s Henry in purgatory, who is chained to his throne on the stage, and then there’s Henry that is the dream version that his court jester, who is pulling the strings, if you will, and showing him, ‘This is what you did. Look at what you did,’” Konen said. “Watching Henry in purgatory get to react to those things after I don’t know how many iterations he would have gone through in the last 500 years, but he’s watching it on a loop over and over, and you can tell that it’s getting to him.”
The show also reveals Henry’s humanity, according to Konen, and points out that he did not have a lot of choices being king, even though history portrays him as a monster.
“You start to see him as, OK, he wasn’t just a monster,” Konen said. “Maybe there’s more to him than just the terrible things he did.”
Konen said he liked the idea of a show shining a light on a classic villain to reveal motives for actions and not just assuming the person is completely evil.
“It doesn’t mean we forgive them, but it means we start to understand them a little bit more,” Konen said.
The show is set up for anywhere from 10-35 actors, depending on the size of the school. SCHS is running the show with 11 students, according to Konen.
After years of mysteries, comedies and one iteration of something experimental, he said, “Queens” was something new to try. Trying to act dramatically compared with being funny on the stage requires different skill sets.
“I was looking to challenge the students in a new way and keep their repertoire moving so that they’re exposed to new and different types of theater,” Konen said. “The last time I did a drama was four years ago, so the seniors maybe got to come see it and be exposed to it, but many of the other students didn’t have any exposure to it four years ago.”
“Queens” is expected to provide some exposure to history for those who don’t know who King Henry VIII is, according to Konen, but more importantly, the director wants the audience to walk away understanding there’s a humanity to each of the characters, no matter what they have done.
“It’s not just the queens, but it’s all these other women who are in the court with him,” Konen said. “There are the women in white, which due to the number of people we have are also doubling as queens. There are seven queens, including Queen Elizabeth, who comes on stage at the end to put the nail in the coffin, if you will.”
AT A GLANCE
WHAT: “Queens”
WHEN: 7 p.m. Oct. 23-24, 2 p.m. Oct. 25
WHERE: Auditorium, Shawano Community High School, 220 County Road B, Shawano
TICKETS: $5 adults, $3 students
