Baroness Wheatcroft reviews 'Mrs President'

Miriam Grace Edwards as Mary Lincoln and Sam Jenkins-Shaw as Mathew Brady | Image by: Pamela Raith

Baroness Wheatcroft

@PJWheatcroft

“Seduction and politics are the same,” declares Mathew Brady, as he prepares to help Mary Lincoln win the hearts of the American people. As one of the earliest celebrity photographers, he was deemed instrumental in propelling Abraham Lincoln to power and Abe’s widow craves a little of that magic to redeem her reputation.

Today emphasis on the image is huge and official photographers accompany politicians everywhere but it seems the public can still be seduced by words alone, however unflattering the accompanying pictures. It is just another accepted view that Donald Trump has proved wrong.

This new play makes no claim to offer insights into recent political developments and feels strangely irrelevant in the wake of Trump’s triumph. Mrs Lincoln, consistently determined to insist on being known as “Mrs President”, wants Brady to portray her in a way that will overcome the widespread belief that she was a spoilt child of the South, with extravagant habits and fragile mental health. The play sets out to introduce the audience to Mary’s story but, in its fragmented approach, fails to engender any real empathy or understanding. Instead, the photographer is shown more as mad professor than creative genius, not in long range but only in snap shots, interspersed with weird cameos from unexplained visitors, while his sitter remains sadly one-dimensional.

In truth, having lost three of her four sons and been sitting next to her husband when he was assassinated, Mary could have been forgiven some loss of equilibrium. Her privileged upbringing in the South, as a daughter of a major slave-owning dynasty, brought its own dramas: she was fully supportive of her husband’s moves against slavery, pitching her against her family. And she was devastated when one of her brothers chose to fight for the Confederacy, against her husband, in the civil war.

This play could tell us a little more about a very interesting woman

This conflict is alluded to in the play with the brief appearance of chief justice Roger Taney, a dreadful visage which sends her into paroxysms of terror. Taney fiercely opposed giving any rights to slaves but fully appreciating his significance to the story, and the reason it had the impact it did on Mary, requires more than the average knowledge of US history that might be expected from the audience.

Quite why renowned ornithological artist John James Audubon should have popped up in Brady’s studio during the play remains a question that only John Ransom Phillips can answer. In writing Mrs President, he says he wanted to allow “her story to be told with empathy and understanding” but, even in its uninterrupted 75 minutes, this play could tell us a little more about a very interesting woman than it does.

As Mary, Miriam Grace Edwards works phenomenally hard but, with such a scanty script, cannot fully convey the character she sets out to be. Sam Jenkins-Shaw bounds around as Brady but is only ever the supporting character in this two-hander, directed by Bronagh Lagan. The Charing Cross Theatre deserves credit for showcasing new drama and the production values here are of the highest but the raw material was lacking. Mary Todd Lincoln is a fascinating character about whom a great play could be written…

Baroness Wheatcroft is a Crossbench peer

Mrs President
Written by: John Ransom Phillips
Directed by: Bronagh Lagan
Venue: Charing Cross Theatre, WC2, until 16 March

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