5 / 10
After Booth meets his end, the narrative continues confusingly. The story has all the ingredients to be a gripping and resonant yarn but the telling needs a considerable amount of tightening in order to be compelling theatre.
7 / 10
The seven-strong company share multiple roles except for the magnetic Brandon Bassir, who devotes his energies fittingly to the bloody-minded Booth, a man who views the fatal bullet as “a strike against the elite”. Bassir introduces another layer of meta-textual commentary channelling Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle (who influenced Reagan’s would-be killer) whenever Booth slips into smarmy wooing mode. Meanwhile, Clara Onyemere would make a riveting Lincoln even without the irony of a Black female actor playing the role in a year which could give the US its first Black female president.
See what the critics are saying about Land of the Free at Southwark Playhouse. Playing in the lead up to the most contentious American presidential election since the time of the Civil War, Land of The Free, tells the full story for the first time in British theatre of the life of the actor John Wilkes Booth. Read all of the reviews.
Land of the Free might be considered a success. Yes, its structure stumbles and feels a bit misguided at times, but it got a room full of people discussing some truly important issues. In a world facing such uncertainty, that’s exactly the kind of conversation theatre should be encouraging!
A new play exploring the assassination of Abraham Lincoln announced its cast ahead of its opening next month. The production promises a deep dive into the historical event with a fresh perspective.
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