You may recall that we’ve been to see a play about Mary Todd Lincoln recently and it wasn’t this one. I’m not quite sure which strings MTL posthumously pulled to get herself a West End double bill but I feel like the “Oh Mary!” version of her would be delighted. After all, her dream is to be a cabaret star.
If you think that sounds frivolous for a play about a woman whose main characteristic is “grieving” then you’d be right….this is indeed frivolous. But the weird thing is that, in some ways, it is every bit as intense as “Mrs President”. Neither play about MTL is a relaxing experience.
And they’re similar in some ways – both near Charing Cross, both one act plays with no interval, both with a small cast and very little in the way of scenery changes. That’s probably where the similarities end though.
I’ll get into a bit more detail about the actual play in a moment but first, for anyone who is confused – the Trafalgar Theatre is a proper theatre auditorium on the same footprint as the Trafalgar Studios where I saw “Julie Madly Deeply” all those years ago. I don’t know what I was thinking when I booked the tickets but even when we arrived at the theatre, I somehow thought it was still a studio set up….so I was quite surprised to be in a full-on auditorium. Apparently it was refurbished in 2020 but hey, that was not a great theatre year for us.
I was also surprised when we stopped at the Trafalgar Square Waterstones on the way. I’ve only ever been to the ground floor and cafe and thought it was tiny…but VK found a lift down to the basement and it’s huge.
Of course VK went straight to the GCSE revision guides and was very scornful of the cover of “Lord of the Flies”. Teens know how to have fun, hey? She also wanted to buy yet another copy of Les Mis to celebrate its birthday but we negotiated and I was pleased to get away with only buying a small amount of art supplies. No one wants to take an unnecessary Victor Hugo novel to the theatre, do they?
So, onto the show itself! The main pull of this production for us was seeing Mason Alexander Park in a lead role after their supporting-but-scene-stealing turns in “The Tempest” and “Much Ado About Nothing”. With Catherine Tate taking over the role soon, time was ticking so I booked as soon into the Easter holidays as I could, just for VK and I. Roo is on a bit of a mission to see Doctor Who actors in theatre, so he and Nathan may well go and see the show once she takes over. Mason is a total star, with a phenomenal singing voice but I wonder just what they could do with a character that is a bit more likeable than this version of MTL. It was a stellar performance, don’t get me wrong, but a friend described this show as “weird” and she wasn’t entirely wrong.
The story is set in the last days of “her husband”‘s life. Mary is a drunk and a thorn in the side of all around her. Her bubbly companion Louise (Kate O’Donnell) is keeping her distance after being pushed down the stairs and the husband (Scott Karim) is busy lusting after his assistant (Oliver Stockley). Meanwhile, John Wilkes Booth (Dino Fetscher) is swinging by to give Mary acting lessons. Chaos ensues.
I mentioned already that this show is intense and it is, albeit in a more upbeat way than “Mrs President”. Lines are shouted, there’s a lot of physical humour and more than a little gross-out comedy. Mary is a livewire whose next move is highly unpredictable and so the characters and audience are both constantly on edge. There’s a distinct panto feel to the whole thing, though I think the inspiration is Victorian melodramas – the blackout at the end of each film feels like the gaps in a silent film. And despite some of the more uncomfortable moments – the bucket scene, for example – each of those gaps was filled with rapturous applause.
The cast are excellent and the lines are delivered with a zing, which helps move the show along at a pace. None of the main characters are exactly likeable, especially Mary herself, but somehow they become almost sympathetic by the end. The husband is an especially nasty piece of work but yknow, he had the weight of the free world on his shoulders whereas Mary doesn’t seem to care about the war (“the South of what?” she says repeatedly). There are some great set pieces, like Mary trying to lever open the desk drawer to find whisky or the bit where she’s spinning atop the walnut desk. I also enjoyed the lengthy “Tempest” interlude, given Mason’s previous performance. And although it’s right at the end, we do eventually get to hear their singing voice through one of Mary’s “Madcap Medleys”.
Was it enjoyable overall though? I think so and VK certainly did, judging by her guaffawing. It was often uncomfortable watching and my nerves were jangled quite a lot….but there were a lot of laughs along the way. It was certainly jauntier than the other MTL play but it was not the most soothing of productions. In Mason Alexander Park, there is a true talent but I feel like I’ve yet to see them in the perfect role. Maybe someone will do a “Hedwig” revival in the West End…
