Some eight years since I first saw How To Win Against History, the production has returned to the Edinburgh Fringe, both revised and expanded.
Telling the story of Henry Cyril Paget, the 5th Marquess of Anglesy, Paget was a man whose creative spirit and penchant for fabulous frocks was, if not too radical for his time, definitely too radical given his position as a member of the aristocracy.
Paget was into jewels, fabulous frocks, and the theatre. Having inherited large tracts of Staffordshire, Dorset, Derbyshire and Anglesey, Paget set about spending his family’s vast wealth on indulging his interests. Having spent almost all of his fortune, he fled to France, where he died at the age of only twenty-nine.
His family burnt almost all of his personal papers, embarrassed by his existence and profligate ways. His theatre at Plas Newydd, the family seat on Anglesey, was converted back into its original function as a chapel, and Paget’s existence was, as much as possible, erased from history.
The property having eventually passed to the National Trust, some mention of him is now included in their displays at the property, but the dearth of information has made trying to find out anything substantive about his life very difficult.
Into this void of facts has stepped writer, lyricist and performer Seiriol Davies, who has worked tirelessly to bring this story to the stage. This version has expanded what was there before, to consider not just Paget, but those closest to him in his life.
Taking an autobiographical/memoir approach, Davies is assisted by Matthew Blake, playing Alexander Keith & Others, to tell the story. Alexander Keith is a theatrical performer, and Paget’s friend. On the piano, and leading the small group of musicians is Dylan Townley, who also has some dramatic interventions.
We begin with Paget’s younger life: typically for a young upper class boy, he attended Eton. Then, at the age of only twenty-three, he inherited the title, the land and the monies, and became Marquess.
All of these moments are accompanied by songs. The re-imagined Eton School Song is very funny, taking aim at the pomposity and ridiculousness of that establishment, and the people who send their sons there.
An older Paget is accompanied by Keith on his extended tour around the British Isles, where Paget and Keith try to bring increasingly surreal adaptations of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ to the great British public.
Again, this is a very funny sequence, as the small group of musicians who accompany Townley have to clamber on and off the lid of a grand piano, and try to remain upbeat about a theatrical tour which seems to be going very, very wrong.
In what might come as a surprise, Paget married. It was to his first cousin, Lilian Chetwynd, and, in Davies’ telling of the story, was something of a ‘lavender marriage’. Certainly, the union produced no children.
Lilian is also played by Blake, who gives a very effecting performance of the young woman who thinks she knows what she’s getting into. That she doesn’t becomes all too clear, and she leaves. She makes a small reappearance at the end, and we discover that she at least had a happy ending – and her own version of a fabulous life.
Behind the fabulous frocks and jewels though, we get a sense that Henry just wants to be loved. To be accepted. To be understood. His life appears to have been very solitary – with few friends, and seemingly almost no relatives that he was actually close to.
The lack of records is a problem here. Davies has drawn what they can from snippets found in archives. But at times, it feels slightly disjointed. We want to know more. We want a narrative that feels slightly less episodic.
What Henry, and Lilian were searching for was the solution to how to live their lives authentically, in a time and a situation that had very specific, very strict expectations for how they were expected to live their lives. That they both found the courage, in their own ways, to embrace that authenticity, is celebrated in this show, which also doesn’t shy away from showing the difficult moments of Henry’s life.
Davies has created and developed a show tinged with sadness, but overlaid with joy. In celebrating Paget, he has brought the 5th Marquess back to life, and shown that, however much history might try to destroy people who lead ‘abnormal’ lives, the truth will, somehow, always be discovered and re-told.
The message of this story: find the courage to live how you want to, and ignore those who don’t understand you, is increasingly relevant. This is a time when LGBTQIA+ people once again find themselves in the spotlight of disapproval, from people who won’t understand why people want to be allowed to live in their own ways, outside of rigidly imposed ‘expectations’.
However much ‘they’ tried, Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey has not been forgotten by history. Despite all of its efforts, he has won. Be such a winner yourself.
How to Win Against History continues at Underbelly George Square (in the gardens), at 19:15, daily, until August 24 (not 11, 18)
All images, including Featured Image, courtesy of Michelle Mangan PR
