Review: MRS PRESIDENT, Charing Cross Theatre

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Charing Cross Theatre is the current home to Mrs President, a two hander, with clever staging, starring Keala Settle as Mary Todd Lincoln, and Hal Fowler as esteemed photographer Mathew Brady.

Mrs President raises themes of power, identity and humanity. The premise is smart: get to know the real woman behind the name through her visits to Brady (tasked with reinventing Mary’s public image).

At the sittings, the First Lady reveals hidden parts of herself; her trauma, grief and desires. Unfortunately, there is little depth here, mainly due to the limited emotional connection between the characters, and ultimately between the story and the audience. The characters recite lengthy monologues in turn, independently of one another, rather than as part of a conversation, and despite Settle’s best efforts to portray a woman with many layers, Mary remains one dimensional. With a greater exploration of Brady’s failing eyesight than Mary’s thoughts and feelings, the true Mary Todd Lincoln remains a mystery.

It is well documented that Mary was sectioned, and whilst the events leading up to this are included in the play, the impact on Mary is only superficially explored and the opportunity for a sharper focus on the historical misunderstanding of mental health is sadly missed.

Hal Fowler embodies a number of characters in Mary’s flashbacks, which take place during her visits to the studio. Each memory highlights a part of Mary’s history in an effort to unpick who she is, and why, but the flashbacks are fleeting. These brief visits to very weighty topics couldn’t possibly be fully explored in such a tight timescale (the whole show runs at around 85 minutes), resulting in very light-touch summaries of heavy events, including death and slavery, which means that the audience is no further forward in understanding their impact on Mary.

Mary’s narrative is emotionally delivered by Settle. However, in an effort to show how he intends to reinvent Mary, Brady appears to ignore her views entirely, putting his opinions onto her and often telling her how she feels and how he will portray her. Whilst this reflects the power struggle between the two, this feels like a missed opportunity to focus on Mary’s viewpoint. In a play which claims to explore the woman behind the name, why give Mary a voice, just to take it away by re-stamping a male viewpoint over it. This results in Mary being silenced and unable to demonstrate the extent of her grief and pain, only really scratching the surface.

Despite a very strong cast and inventive staging, Mrs President misses the opportunity to really explore identity, feminism, and mental health, never really capturing any depth of emotion. Ultimately, leaving a feeling that we know less about Mary Todd Lincoln than we did before.

** Two stars

Reviewed by: Cara Brazier

Mrs President plays at London’s Charing Cross Theatre until 8 March, with tickets available here.