Johnny and June. Married 14 years. I take my hat off, I only lasted five. Divorced, two kids, we’re a broken family now. I tell you what’s really broken though – I pushed my babies out my foof with such force my two holes became one. Now that’s a ring of fire!
June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me is a music theatre tribute written and performed by Charlene Boyd and directed by Cora Bissett. Boyd begins the show as June, decked out in cornflower blue and belts out a hit. The audience beams, but I confess I’m bored – though I’m interested in the story of June, I’m not a fan of country music or music theatre, I’m on my fourth Fringe show of the day and I’m feeling jaded and exhausted.
The theatre space is decked out like a cabaret with tables and chairs, pretty coloured lights and props and costumes littered around the space. A jaunty band featuring Amy Duncan, Ray Aggs and Harry Ward perform on stage. June’s singing ‘Ring of Fire’… then Boyd stops singing, breaks character and speaks in a broad Scottish accent, ‘I used tae be in a June Carter tribute act for 14 years. And I did nae know till I wrote this show that it was June who wrote ‘Ring of Fire’!’ I prick up my ears. This is getting interesting. Then she delivers the pearler quoted above. I am in, hook, line and sinker.
What follows is a clever interweaving of Charlene’s story with June’s. Boyd tells her story with great self-deprecating humour (‘June played the autoharp, harmonica and guitar. I played – f**k all!’) She lays it all bare – the struggle of being a single parent and feeling like a crap mum, the loneliness of lockdown, her depressing Glasgow flat, having imposter syndrome and facing the insecurity of being an artist during COVID.
And she tells June’s story with an abiding love and passion – her singing career that began at age 10, her marriage and break up to Country legend Carl Smith (who makes a hilarious appearance as a Howdy Doody puppet), her children and, of course, her rise to fame and love affair with Johnny Cash.
Boyd writes the making of the show into the script. After a fruitless search on the internet to speak to June’s children, she takes us on the road with her to June’s childhood home in the Appalachian Mountains, all the while wrestling with mother guilt for leaving her kids behind. At the family shack she meets an old black man (voiced beautifully by Ray Aggs) who says he used to play guitar with June on her porch. ‘Miss Charlene, when you play music you gotta mean it. Don’t play it like the city folks, push against it, wrestle it. I’ve grown with this music, turned soil with it, grieved with it – if a song is in you, you gotta let it out.’
Review: Festival reviews: Drum, Failure Project, Edinburgh Festival Fringe
This was a very special music theatre experience, even for this jaded old reviewer. The band are consummate professionals, the direction tight and polished, the songs moving and memorable, and the writing just sparkles.
This is Boyd’s first foray into playwriting and she’s an absolute natural. Hopefully she can happily slough off the imposter syndrome now – she’s clearly a triple threat: actor, singer and writer extraordinaire. There is so much to love about this show. It has a whole lot of warmth, passion and soul and, at its heart, the story of two wonderful women. Charlene Boyd, you did June Carter-Cash proud.
June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me will be performed at Summerhall until 24 August 2024.
