one4review | On 19, Aug 2023

Brought to us by New York company, Rec Room Arts and Art Pond Foundation, a new play by John Ransom Phillips, ‘Mrs President’ is about Mary Lincoln, and her desire for a new image to win the hearts of the American people, following the assassination of her husband, Abraham.

The play begins with a photographer leaning over his camera and Mrs Lincoln sitting on a chair, about to pose for him. The two characters and two objects are used to create a number of scenes in the dramatic life of the former First Lady. Mrs Lincoln, or Mrs President as she likes to be called, has had a difficult life after Abraham’s murder; she has been accused of being a spy, a traitor and also spent some time incarcerated in an institution, having been committed by her son, Robert. She also suffered as a result of the death of three of her four sons. She desperately wants a new image of herself, and therefore approaches Mathew B Brady, the photographer who took the ‘shot’ of Abraham Lincoln that made him famous, and is reproduced on every $5 bill currently in circulation. She needs the new image to change the public perception of herself, which was pretty negative at the time – a difficult time for woman, who had few rights, not even the right to vote, and were regarded as the property of their husbands. But is the photo she desperately needs beyond the reach of even the famous ‘alchemist of the wet plate persuasion’, Mr Brady himself.

The play is about more than the desire for one photograph, but the power of representation itself and the battle for creative control. LeeAnne Hutchison as Mary Lincoln and Christopher Kelly as Mathew B Brady are compelling in their roles in what is a well-crafted and informative drama, beautifully staged, and looking to readdress the traditional image of Mary Lincoln. It is a compelling hour of Fringe theatre, and I would highly recommend catching this performance.

****

Reviewed by Howard
C Venues, C aquila – temple

Until 27th August (not 21st)