Our American Queen

The American Vicarious are an intriguing Brooklyn-based company who make work examining America and its ideals. A couple of formally interesting shorter run shows of their have come to London already, notably Debate: Baldwin vs. Buckley, a reenactment of James Baldwin and William F Buckley Jr’s televised battle for the soul of ’60s America, and Fight for America!, a tabletop boardgame recreation of the 2021 storming of the Capitol. By contrast, their latest show to come over here – and longest running one to date – sounds like it’s pretty much a conventional play, albeit an intriguing one. Written, somewhat unexpectedly, by Thomas Klingenstein – a man desribed by the Guardian as a ‘far right megadonor’ – it concerns Kate Chase, a society hostess who became a prominent political force in an era when women were officially shut out of politics, supporting the three presidential runs of her father Salmon P Chase. Directed by Christopher McElroen and starring Wallis Currie-Wood, reviews Stateside have been relatively low key in nature but generally positive.