Eleanor

By Mark St. Germain

Directed by Bryn Boice

Central Square Theater

September 10-October 11, 2026

Any opportunity to see Paula Plum, the dame of Boston theater, is always good reason to get up and get out to a show. But you must run to see Ms. Plum’s star turn in Central Square Theater’s production of Eleanor. She is simply spectacular. And the play, a one woman show about the life of Eleanor Roosevelt, is rich in unexpected detail and dramatic tension. This perfect fusion of superb actor and engaging subject makes for a rewarding ninety minutes.

Central Square Theater (CST) is mission-driven, perhaps more than any theater company in the area. They thrive on plays about women, science, and progressive voices. Sometimes, so preachy as to be academic rather than dramatic. But fortunately, Eleanor plays to CST’s strengths without ever giving over to lecture. You learn a lot, but come away being both thought-provoked and entertained.

The set-up is simple, yet spot on. Present day, at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C., where the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt comes to visit. Why, you may ask, this cemetery, when Eleanor Roosevelt, who died in 1962, is buried beside her husband, Franklin, in Hyde Park, New York? Three reasons, I suspect. First, to illustrate the fraught complexity of Eleanor and Franklin’s marriage. Where their bodies lie bears little connection to where their spirits thrive. Second, because it’s historical fact that Eleanor Roosevelt often visited Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ haunting statue, The Mystery of the Hereafter and The Peace of God that Passeth Understanding (commonly known as Grief), when contemplating the heartache of her husband’s life-long affair with Lucy Mercer Rutherford. And third, by setting the play in the present, Eleanor gets to aim her sharp wit at present-day Washington, which she does sparingly, yet to great effect.

“Who are any of us, but the choices we make?” Eleanor challenges early in the play, and then Paula Plum, decked out in an elegantly simple vintage dress with a double string of pearls, proceeds to entangle us in the multiple, complex choices that Eleanor made in life. Ms. Plum also plays more than a dozen side characters, all of whom she renders with alacrity and humor. The cemetery set is stark, yet the occasional projections elicit a range of moods and reinforce the sense of spanning time.

Eleanor hits all the high points we already know about the longest serving First Lady: her ungainly looks; her championship of the downtrodden; her relationship with Lorena Hicks. But it doesn’t dwell in gossip. Rather, the play introduces a bevy of attributes and characters of which I was unaware. Eleanor’s elegant French tutor who taught, “how to raise your place in society, not settle for where society puts you.” Eleanor’s unstinting devotion to her (no good) father. Her close relationship with a beefy Secret Service guard. The clarity—and blinders—that both she and Franklin brought to their marriage and their official roles. Eleanor was the emotional heart (and functional legs) of the duo; Franklin the savvy political animal.

I will not spoil the dramatic peak of this biography we all think we know, except to say there’s drama aplenty, which Paula Plum delivers magnificently.

Go see Eleanor. Because it’s a story infused with hope, which we need in these brutal days. But also, to feel comforted in what we know about this remarkable woman, challenged by what we don’t know, and delighted by the engaging theater experience. Thank you, Paula Plum. Thank you Central Square Theater.