Alison Skilbeck both writes and performs Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London, a piece that is ultimately an examination of the couple's unconventional marriage. The crippled President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) cheated on Eleanor after she'd borne him five children, and they never shared a bedroom again. What followed were discreet relationships with both partners favouring other women. Through it all they remained devoted to each other like the couple in Terence Rattigan's Flare Path, from which Eleanor recreates the turning point: being married, and knowing the other person is there no matter what's happening on the periphery, is what drives their visions and keeps them strong.
I retained what I knew about Eleanor Roosevelt long enough to get my Modern History GCSE. A fragment remains: active in her own right long after FDR's death, she brokered and delivered the Unilateral Declaration of Human Rights. You don't need to know this, however, to enjoy Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London. Skilbeck's elegant knitting together of people and places and facts, with some material taken directly from Eleanor's letters, puts all the pieces in place.
In conclusion: Directed by Lucy Skilbeck (no relation), the tiniest actions in this 75 minute play are instructive and the understated, prosaic, and humorous delivery is a delight. Having entered the King's Head with interest but no great expectation, I left teary-eyed. And it wasn't because the theatre is so small and short of funds they were doing a bucket collection on the way out...
Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London, Tickets
King's Head Theatre, 115 Upper Street, Islington N1 1QN
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