Abraham Lincoln | Bouquets & Brickbats

24/08/23

C Venues (Aquila Temple), Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh

Sometimes at the Fringe, one show can lead to another. A brief mention of Abraham Lincoln’s wife, Mary, in Mystery House, alerts me to the poster for Mrs President – and I’m compelled to know more about her.

When I enter the performance space at C Venues’ Aquila Temple, I find a tableau awaiting me: two figures frozen in position as the audience files in. They are photographer Mathew B Brady (Christopher Kelly) and Mary Lincoln (Leeanne Hutchison) – or rather, when they first speak, they are a camera and a 300-year-old chair. It’s that kind of play.

This earnest and thought-provoking duologue, written by John Random Phillips, is all about the iconography of the photograph, the way in which a talented photographer can somehow imbue a subject with a certain gravitas, turning them into living legends. Abe Lincoln always maintained that Brady’s photographs ‘made him the President’ – and it was Brady’s image of Lincoln that ended up on the five-dollar bill. Furthermore, his eerie final image of Mary, with the ‘ghost’ of her assassinated husband standing behind her, has endured over the centuries.

But right now, Honest Abe is still alive and Mary is seeking out Brady for another sitting, feeling that her image needs a little bolstering. The fact is that the American public are rather less enamoured with her than they are with her saintly husband. Mary has issues. She is perceived as a spendthrift and her delicate mental health has been the source of some speculation…

Mrs President is an intense, haunting play and both Hutchinson and Kelly submit powerful performances. I’m particularly impressed by Stefan Azizi’s simple but effective staging, and Kristine Koury’s ingenious costume design. I like too the parallels with the celebrated wildlife photographer, Audubon (who also makes a brief appearance here), a man who thought nothing of breaking the wings of his subjects in order to ensure that they didn’t move as he drew them.

As the Fringe rumbles inexorably to its conclusion, those looking for a change of pace from bright lights and brash comedy might like to seek out this quietly assured and authoritative production.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

09/08/23

Gilded Balloon Teviot (Turret), Edinburgh

Mystery House is screenwriter Wendy Weiner’s account of a genuine place, Winchester House. Created by the widow of the man behind ‘the rifle that won the West’, it has been a source of conjecture since its foundation stones were laid in 1866.

After her husband died from tuberculosis, Sarah ‘Sally’ Winchester devoted her life to creating this bizarre sprawling mansion with over two hundred rooms, where building work continued non-stop for thirty eight years until her death in the 1920s.

Was it because she was terrified of what might happen to her if she ever allowed the work to cease? Well, that’s the official line, anyway… Because, of course, the Mystery House is said to be haunted. In fact, Weiner begins her talk with a disclaimer. If anything of a supernatural nature should occur, she cannot be held responsible for our safety. This sounds weirdly promising, though the show doesn’t really deliver on that score.

Instead, Weiner shines a light on the ways in which women are so often diminished, their pursuits limited purely because they are women – something that Weiner herself has experienced in her brushes with the House of Mouse (Disney Studios). She skilfully interweaves other narratives into her presentation too: the story of her father and his battle with cancer and an account of Abraham Lincoln’s widow, Mary Todd, and the shoddy treatment she received after her husband’s assassination.

Weiner is a confident and likeable performer and she handles the various strands of the story with aplomb, cutting effortlessly back and forth as the narrative unfolds. And yes, the Winchester House does seem a fascinating place to visit, even if the promotional guides have amped up some of the creepier details.

The promotion for this monologue suggests that it’s heading into darker territory than it actually visits, and there’s part of me that would like to see that side developed a little more – but this is nonetheless a fascinating insight into the place that was the inspiration for Disney’s Haunted Mansion.

3.8 stars

Philip Caveney