Call Me Elizabeth: from Lassie to Cleopatra and Call Me Elizabeth: from Burton to Humanitarian are playing on alternate dates at Studio Two at Assembly George Square Studios as part of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.
Previously, the original Call Me Elizabeth took the story of Elizabeth Taylor from childhood stardom to her meeting with her fifth (and sixth) husband Richard Burton.
This time, Kayla Boye’s two shows move the Burton years into the second part of the story, which is set in 1985 at the height of the AIDS crisis but also allows some reflection on the past.
Boye definitely feels as if she has got under the skin of Taylor, with the Lassie to Cleopatra part set in the early 60s and Burton to Humanitarian twenty years later.
Born in 1932 in England, Taylor was the breadwinner for her family from an early age and never allowed to be an ordinary child. On screen from the age of ten, and married at eighteen for the first time of 8, Taylor was always on the front pages and in the gossip columns.
Splitting a forty-year span into two plays gives more time to Taylor’s later humanitarian work and her lifelong belief in the man who would sweep her off her feet.
Each husband seems to offer it, then disillusionment (or in the case of Mike Todd, death) steps in. This version of Elizabeth Taylor knows her own mind but never really grows up where romance is concerned.
Her marriages to Burton represented her longest commitment, but seemed more ‘George and Martha’ in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?than anything concrete. In both shows, Boye’s Taylor is talking to an invisible confidante, taking calls and reflecting on decisions made.
What are still missing from this marrative are her four children – two sons with 2nd husband Michael Wilding, a daughter with 3rd husband Todd, and a daughter eventually adopted with Burton. She doesn’t feel a natural mother – more someone who gets lost in a pair of blue eyes or the memory of a quick fling.
In both Call Me Elizabeth plays, Boye brings out the star quality and delicacy of Taylor, and even if you are a fan and know all the twists, her portrayal is never cruel, malicious or ridiculous.
Her marital woes aside, and attachments to gay men who died prematurely (Dean, Cliftonville, Hudson), the plays also touch on her pill and booze addiction, perhaps placing them on the burden of being one of the most famous women in the world, albeit one who has more diamonds than the Queen of England.
If you want the full story, see both plays, which are introduced by archive video clips – one of Taylor being seriously ill before the release of Butterfield 8, the other a White House briefing referencing ‘the gay plague’.
Taylor’s role in AIDS activism was a major part of her later life, especially after the end of her 7th marriage to Republican senator John Warner, a man who eventually wanted to silence her publicly and found himself divorced.
I find it interesting that the 2nd play is set in 1985 but does not mention Taylor’s reaction to the premature death of Burton just the year before. She clearly carries a great deal of love for him, as she did to the end of her life, making it a tragic cornerstone of her story.
Taylor outlived 5 of her 7 husbands, for all her health issues, dying herself at 2011 at the age of 79. Her last film role was in 1994, and her last TV role – in 2001 – teamed her with Debbie Reynolds, long after she took up with Reynolds’ husband, and Taylor’s 4th, Eddie Fisher.
Michael Weber directs both shows, which now have the dramaturgical input of Guy Masterson, the nephew of Richard Burton.
Wtitten with love and respect, and performed with passion and raw ability, Call Me Elizabeth gains 4 stars this time around.
Read my interview with Kayla Boye, and my review of the original production of Call Me Elizabeth.
Call Me Elizabeth: from Lassie to Cleopatra and Call Me Elizabeth: from Burton to Humanitarian run on alternate dates throughout the Edinburgh Fringe.
My thanks to Kayla Boye for providing a recording of the plays for review.