Mrs President ★★★

As another storm batters the British Isles, producer Art Pond Foundation brings a different sort of storm to the boards of the Charing Cross Theatre in London. Mrs President is a period piece based on snapshots of the lives of Mary Todd Lincoln, the reviled former USA First Lady and wife of Abraham, and a Civil War photographer named Mathew Brady. It is coming up to 250 years since the first Independence Day, and there will be many more shows produced this year that will take a look back over the history of the country “over the pond”, but will this one tell us something unique and interesting about a woman that is mostly known for her famous husband, overspending and committal to an insane asylum by her son? Unfortunately this two-handed, over-worked play fails to hit the mark.

Writer John Ransom Phillips (Eve & Adam, Fatherless Sons) is an American polymath who lectures in cultural history, writes books, paints and imagines the interior worlds of historical figures. He believes that plays need time to evolve and be rewritten over and over again, and this is certainly the issue with this one. He is fascinated by the inner lives of tragic historical figures and likes to use his intuition and imagination, as well as research, to write his plays. Mrs President was first performed at the Charing Cross Theatre a year ago and since then has been creatively workshopped back in New York in order to bring this reimagined version to its London audience in 2026. Ransom Phillips has used Mrs President to reshape the story of Mary Todd Lincoln, who was born in the South and had four children with her husband, the 16th President of the United States. As the First Lady, she was harshly judged by the people suffering through the Civil War when they heard of her lavish redecoration of the White House, love of shopping and general vivacity. Ransom Phillips has taken the fact that Mathew Brady did make many portraits of her in his studio and imagined what the conversations between them might have been like.

Neither of the characters is written particularly sympathetically, so the two actors have a challenge to make us like them. The role of Mary Lincoln is taken on by Keala Settle (The Greatest Showman, Waitress, Urinetown), who has made her name in film and theatre for her singing parts. This is her first non-musical role, and it gives her the chance to prove that she can carry emotional scenes and play against one other actor. She is the first to take the stage, dressed in a burnt orange embroidered hooped dress, and the first minutes are spent with her walking around the photographer’s studio looking fondly at the chair and camera that are placed in the room. There are framed likenesses high up on the walls to the right that tell of the men whom Brady has photographed before. The ceiling is portrayed by a grid of rafters, and the remaining area is simply furnished. The eye is also drawn to a rope ending in a noose that is draped beside the wall at the back. Lincoln calls several times for Mr Brady, and then enters Hal Fowler (Les Miserables, Aspects of Love, London Road) as the renowned photographer. By contrast, his clothing is tailored and modest, and Fowler delivers a stiffly sanctimonious and haughty Brady to Settle’s more emotional and proud Lincoln. The narrative carries us through the several sittings made by Lincoln as she tries to obtain a picture that she feels is faithful to her own character and not one that mirrors her public image.

She soon changes into black when we are exposed to her grief as she mourns her dead sons and assassinated husband, and Settle’s powerful wailing is the most touching thing to experience, but we get nothing of Lincoln’s lighter side during this play. The story is interspersed with convoluted conjuring ups of the berating spirits of other men photographed by Brady during his lifetime and sinisterly portrayed by Fowler, as Ransom Phillips attempts to explore his themes of mental struggle, societal expectations, control of public image and truth.

The creative team have done their best to bring Lincoln and Brady’s story to life. Director Bronagh Lagan (Cruise, Broken Wings) has chosen to keep most of the action low-key, contained and oppressive. Set and costume designer Anna Kelsey and lighting designer Derek Anderson have worked well to produce the period studio on the stage, including a giant picture frame through which we view the play. They have also designed a darkroom behind a gauzy backdrop which Brady visits, bathed in red light, to develop each plate he has taken. Composer and sound designer Eamonn O’Dwyer has created an absorbing soundscape that really complements the narrative.

Mrs President is not afraid of exploring the real and imagined ghosts of Mary Lincoln, and it deals with attempted suicide, slavery, child loss and mental illness in a compassionate manner. Its weakness is that it throws too many ideas at the audience and fails to elicit the sympathy and understanding it tries to achieve.