Performance and History Collide at the Southwark Playhouse: 'Land of the Free' Review

★★★★ | This is a bold new production that, right off the bat, declares itself to be a lover of parallels. Abraham Lincoln’s assassination is juxtaposed with the assassination of John Wilkes Booth, his shooter. Lincoln’s demise in a crowded theatre is mirrored in Booth’s theatrical background. The audience is acknowledged to be an audience, the actors are acknowledged to be actors, and as Jacques declares in ‘As You Like It’, “all the world’s a stage”.

The company of Land of the Free. Photo Credit: KatieC Photography

The first act of Simple8's new play about the life and dramatics of John Wilkes Booth is mesmerising. The WhatsOnStage Award-winning actors ambitiously take on multiple characters, switching seamlessly between children, politicians, and actors from Booth’s thespian career. It is no mean feat but they pull it off without a hitch. For instance, Owen Oakeshott is both Booth’s dramatic father Junius Brutus Booth and Congressman George Ashmun; Sara Lessore gives a strong performance both as activist Elizabeth Keckley and Booth’s sister, Asia.

The rest of the cast is equally convincing in the myriad of contrasting roles they play. Brandon Bassir is no exception as John Wilkes Booth himself – at times charming, at times calculating, and always compelling. The cast must be applauded for breathing life into the best elements of the play – the glance into Booth’s early life, nod to his love of performance, and political undercurrents that shape Booth’s eventual decision to assassinate Lincoln.

The choice to have a relatively small cast take on a plethora of key figures also makes sense; it points to the mutability of human existence. Lives are varied, capricious, and impermanent, just like the roles actors play. Lives – of famous people, of ordinary people – can be majestically conjured (like characters on a script) and tragically ended (when the actor sheds the cloak of the character). Land of the Free is an entirely self-aware play, where the audience is not just conscious, but actively reminded that it is a piece of theatre.

The company of Land of the Free. Photo Credit: KatieC Photography

So it is a shame when the second act doesn’t quite live up to the first. It’s a lot messier chronologically, with the script trying to introduce too many characters at once while not giving each of them enough air time. The play flits through a multitude of scenes – Booth’s romances with Isabel and Lucy, Booth’s meetings with his co-conspirators, spats with fellow actors, attempts to flee, eventual capture, and so forth. It’s a comprehensive account of Booth’s notorious life, but this means that the storytelling is rushed and haphazard.

There were a few things I wished this latter act focused more on. Firstly, the play could have expanded upon the motif of theatre that so elevated the first half. For example, it would have been interesting to draw a greater contrast between Booth’s acting career and real life – Richard III, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar are all plays in which the main character dies, which could have been an intriguing parallel to Lincoln’s tragic demise. Secondly, this play is not just about any murderer, but a murderer whose very intentions were shaped by divisive politics. Yet, the political tensions were somewhat skimmed over. It felt more like a scattered historical crash course of the Civil War, rather than a sustained investigation of how Booth’s political sympathies drove him to commit the crime of crimes.

And yet, this incredibly strong cast still does what it can with the material and gives a commendable performance. In some respects, theatre is itself a ‘land of the free’ and ‘home of the brave’ – the cast and crew of this production certainly stepped out of their comfort zones, liberating theatre from its traditional confines.

★★★★

Land of the Free plays at Southwark Playhouse Borough until 9 Nov.