Review: Mrs President, Charing Cross Theatre

Mary Lincoln (Miriam Grace Edwards), or Mrs President as she prefers to be addressed, makes several visits to a photographic studio for a portrait by famous photographer Mathew Brady (Sam Jenkins-Shaw). Through their conversations we learn about Mary’s life at that period. She expresses concern over her image and being ‘seen’ as herself, despite the insistence on being addressed as Mrs President. Some other details of her life emerge, but are not really explored in any great depth, and being unfamiliar with this period of history I did find the timeline a little hard to follow.   

Brady is an interesting character. He created iconic images of the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and other prominent people of that time.  I suspect most of us are aware of his photographs without realising who created them. He puts Mary in various poses to be portrayed as the archetypal mother, widow, etc., but is seemingly more concerned about his reputation and view of the sitter than about her requirements. There are some almost throwaway lines about the public perception of Mary, and given that the play’s theme is image, more information on these tantalising snippets would have been useful.

Sound, lighting and use of shadows are all effective, as are the period costumes, including what must have been nightmarish whalebone corsets.  In Brady’s studio, where all the action takes place, there is a model’s chair and an old-fashioned camera on a stand. There are a couple of quite bizarre moments when the chair and the camera have a conversation about their origins and what might happen to them in the future. I still have no idea what the point of this odd diversion was; it added nothing to the narrative.

At the start of this play I did not really know a great deal about Mary Lincoln, and at the end did not really know much more.  I did, however, do a little bit of research and she seems a very interesting character. Obviously it is nigh-on impossible to do justice to the life of a complex public figure in one hour, so any inclination by the audience to find out more must be a positive outcome.  More insight into her life and personality would have been beneficial though.  In the programme, writer Ransom Phillips reveals that the play began with twelve characters.  It could be distilled even further, to a monologue with much more focus on Mary. Though that would mean missing out on Jenkins-Shaw’s performance it would also (hopefully) remove the inanimate objects.  An interesting two-handed play with strong performances from Edwards and Jenkins-Shaw, but in the end somewhat confusing and unsatisfying.

Written by: John Ransom Phillips
Directed by: Bronagh Lagan
Produced by: Art Pond Foundation

Mrs President plays at Charing Cross Theatre until 16 March. Further information and tickets available here.