Central Square Theater’s absorbing and enlightening production of Mark St. Germain’s “Eleanor” opens on a set of benches, panels of greenery, and a projection of a statue called “Grief.” The acclaimed Paula Plum, wearing a dignified dress from an earlier era, steps onto the stage, and we are face-to-face with the embodiment of one of the most influential women in United States history: Eleanor Roosevelt.
In the clipped enunciation typical of upper-class Americans at the time, Eleanor explains that although she is dead and her body buried next to her husband Franklin in Hyde Park, N.Y., her spirit is here in Rock Creek Cemetery. She says the historic park-like cemetery was the place she came to think during the years she lived in Washington.
In the play’s first scene, we see Eleanor in 1918, unpacking then-Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin’s suitcase in search of his medication after he returns home from Paris with pneumonia. She discovers letters that reveal the love affair between her husband and her own private secretary and trusted friend, Lucy Mercer. It’s a shattering event. Eleanor agrees to remain married to Franklin to protect his political career, on the condition he stop seeing Mercer and that Eleanor can be free to live the life she chooses.
While the costume and the set never change, the power of Plum’s acting, a few projections, and a handful of props carry us from scene to scene. Once Franklin was elected president, Eleanor does all she can to challenge racism and inequality. Much — though not all — of the story is likely to be familiar, but small moments — like Eleanor’s decision to violate norms of segregation by placing her seat between the so-called Black and White sections of a segregated hall in Alabama — illustrate her courageous determination to use her privilege to fight injustice.
Even the familiar stories are fascinating, thanks to St. Germaine’s vivid script and Plum’s skillful portrayal of a multitude of characters. Through posture, tone, accent, facial expression, and a frequently employed cigar, Plum becomes Franklin, his mother Sara, Franklin’s troll-like political aide Louis Howe, her iconoclastic cousin Alice, Winston Churchill, Eleanor’s teacher Marie Souvestre, and Eleanor’s own father Elliott.
Precise direction from Bryn Boice allows the intricate script to progress with clarity, presenting a finely woven tapestry of events and reflections that dramatize a life devoted to public service and marked by acts of courage over the course of ninety intermission-free minutes.
Eleanor Roosevelt improved the lives of millions of people in myriad ways, and yet she longed to do much more. Just one example: She begged Franklin to support an anti-lynching bill passed by the House but he refused, believing the loss of support from southern Senators would hamper his New Deal initiatives. The play portrays her admirable drive, but it shows her failures as well, and builds to a shocking betrayal, one she could not admit even to herself, by the man who was her greatest love. And it leaves us wondering — would Eleanor have been the woman she was had the people she loved most not hurt her so deeply?
“Eleanor” is at Central Square Theater through October 11.
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