Mrs President by John Ransom Phillips, Charing Cross Theatre, the Arches, Villiers Street, London WC2 | until 8 March 2026 ⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Mrs President

by John Ransom Phillips 

Charing Cross Theatre, the Arches, Villiers Street, London WC2 | until 8 March 2026

⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

“Fine performance, interesting issues raised.”

Fine performances by Keala Settle as Abraham Lincoln's wife Mary and Hal Fowler as Mathew Brady, the man who photographed both Lincolns cannot rescue John Ransom Phillips's play – what should be fascinating limps along for ninety minutes while Settle changes her dress time and again until ending up in darkest widow's weeds and Fowler fiddles with his camera. Mary Lincoln was not the most popular of presidential wives. Extravagant and forceful she plunged into widowhood with abandon, fell out with one of her sons – he had her confined to a lunatic asylum at one point – and fought to get the state pension she thought she deserved. She probably was not mad. But she did clearly have a breakdown of sorts, had difficult relations with his sons, and an asylum was the treatment of the time for anyone suffering from anything from stress to insanity. What is really interesting is the discussion Mary has with the photographer. She wants him to take pictures that will improve her image with the public, while he knows that how the public perceived her husband was the result of the man shown in his pictures. Then there was no radio, not television, no social media – it was the image people saw and to which they responded. That should have made for an intriguing very relevant to today debate between the pair but as it is Phillips, while raising the issues, fails to go any farther. However, Settle, in a succession of vast crinoline gowns and some astonishing undergarments, holds the attention throughout and, even if he appears to have been a most peculiar photographer, Fowler handles the role of Brady with the necessary gravity. Given how our politicians today rise or fall in the face of the social media onslaught the power of the image is something to ponder. A silent Trump. For instance, would be a very different animal and the same could said of Starmer. There is a handsome set and director Bronagh Lagan does what she can to find things for the protagonists to do but it proves something of a 90-minute slog in the end in spite of the performances.

Cast

Keala Settle – Mary Limcoln

Hal Fowler – Mathew Brady

Creatives

Director – Bronagh Lagan

Set & Costumes – Anna Kelsey

Lighting Designer – Derek Anderson

Composer & Sound Designer – Eamonn O'Dwyer

Video Designer – Matt Powell