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Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London

 
Rebecca Vines Review by Rebecca Vines 5 Published: 3 Aug 2025 Assembly Rooms Show Dates: 31 Jul 2025-24 Aug 2025

Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of FDR and the ‘First Lady of the World’, fought all her life for peace, democracy and universal human rights. But today, all she stood for and everything she achieved are under sustained attack. In this classy and timely piece, her voice of sanity and compassion echoes down more than 80 years, under the careful guidance of writer and performer Alison Skilbeck.

This show celebrates the power that messy, imperfect humans have to change the world

The central conceit focuses on Mrs Roosevelt’s visit to the UK during the height of the war, but ably navigates her rich biography from privileged birth to fulfilled death. The period is thoughtfully evoked through Jane Heather’s spare set design: a chair, a hatstand, a trunk, and jolly bunting covering most of the bases, while Emma Laxton’s judicious sound design contributes to the atmosphere without ever overwhelming the action.

Skilbeck covers much of the known ground of Eleanor’s life and offers up some tasty titbits and anecdotes that keep the action moving with charm and gentle humour. Eleanor’s difficult early life, familial connections to the presidency, and overpowering social conscience are conjured without sentiment: her unorthodox marriage, FDR’s known affairs and Eleanor’s alluded ones are explored with a fusion of tastefulness and candour that one suspects Roosevelt herself might rather approve of. There is no particular agenda here to either out or closet Roosevelt, and the affections she nurtured for those known lesbians in her close circle are embraced without becoming reductive or pulling focus.

It is a very generous performance, allowing one of the most lauded first ladies of all time to breathe with a redolence and reality that cannot help but draw silent comparison with the current incumbents of the White House. A cast of characters – diplomats, royalty, land girls, servicemen –are portrayed by Skilbeck to texturise the piece and invite an appreciation of Roosevelt’s common touch. A touch that belied her aristocratic and monied background, and which seemed to have taken especial flight whilst at finishing school in London. The script’s brisk nonchalance somehow elevates Eleanor’s fervour for workers’ rights and racial equity, just as her quiet acceptance of FDR’s lovers seems to heighten the intimacy of their understanding.

Eleanor Roosevelt was, by anyone’s standards, an extraordinary woman. A woman compelled to speak out. Compelled to make a difference. She bore deep personal sadnesses, scaffolded the longest presidency in the history of the United States, and unfailingly prioritised the most fundamental needs of others over her own reputation. That she was also far from flawless merely makes her more engaging, even at the distance of the best part of a century. And this show celebrates the power that messy, imperfect humans have to change the world.

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The Blurb:

Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of FDR and "First Lady of the World", fought all her life for peace, democracy and universal human rights. Today, all she stood for is under attack throughout our dangerous world. Her voice of sanity and compassion echoes down more than 80 years as she tours Britain at the height of WWII. Returning to Assembly for the third time, Alison Skilbeck's one-woman show explores the public and hidden life of one of the most extraordinary women of the 20th century. ***** (BritishTheatreGuide.info). ***** (Irish Mail on Sunday).