THE STORY: Impulsive, imperious and foolish in money matters, Mary Todd Lincoln was beset by a series of unhappy events in the years following her husband’s tragic assassination. Disturbed by still persistent rumors that she, as a Southerner, had hampered the Union cause; frustrated in her attempts to obtain a pension from Congress; and deeply grieved by the untimely death of her beloved son Tad; she was, for a brief time, committed to a mental institution by her sole surviving son, Robert. But, as the play so eloquently makes clear, Mary Lincoln was also a woman of great courage and compassion, who grew in stature as she came to accept the vicissitudes of her life—and her ultimate reconciliation with her remaining son is a moment of deep emotion and human understanding. Told through a sequence of varied and theatrically brilliant scenes, the play is both a true and touching portrait of a remarkable and much maligned woman, and an ironic statement on the misconstructions which history so often imposes on the truth.
This moving and vivid study of the trouble-filled later years in the life of Lincoln’s widow.
“A superb night of stage magic.” —The Record.
“…a play of great force!” —Newhouse Newspapers.
“A grand display of absorbing drama.” —Associated Press.
