The story of Florence Nightingale is well known. She came to fame as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War. At the same time in the same war, a British-Jamaican Creole woman named Mary Seacole wanted to join the ranks to nurse the wounded soldiers. She was rejected. Undaunted and persistent, she and a distant relative funded her journey to Crimea. Her story was memorialized in her 1857 autobiographical novel “Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands.” The immensely talented playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury tells this story in her new play Marys Seacole.
In the book, Mary recalls the rejection. “Was it possible that American prejudices against colour had some root here? Did these ladies shrink from accepting my aid because my blood flowed beneath a somewhat duskier skin than theirs?” Race relations and prejudice are not new territory for Ms. Drury. She floored me with the uniquely structured Fairview last year. This play ups the ante for shifts in time, character, place and tone. I cannot be sure I understood it all. I am, however, resolute in my admiration of this incredibly inventive narrative.
Scene after scene challenges the viewer to travel a nonlinear path. The play opens with Mary talking about her life. The following scene is a hospital room with three generations of a white family. One is elderly and very ill. Mary is now a nurse today. Apparently Ms. Drury is going to be drawing parallels across centuries. She does but not in any way that could be predictable.
If Fairview was distinctive in its storytelling, Marys Seacole is even bolder in dramatizing its themes. Suffice it to say that this one act phantasmagoria is filled with astonishing imagery and fascinating language. Describing her father, Mary comments on his “doxologizing claptrap.” A new word to me, doxology is a liturgical formula of praise to god. Lileana Blain-Cruz (Pipeline, Red Speedo) has impressively directed this challenging and thought provoking work. Individual moments are never less than interesting and occasionally are mind blowing.
Quincy Tyler Bernstine is a colossal Mary. She is both a historical figure and a modern woman shaded by a world that is not color blind. Will it ever be? Like Mary Seacole, she perseveres. Six actresses each have roles that range from complex emotions to kooky humor. They are all excellent. This play is for anyone who wants to go to the theater and see something extraordinarily original, a little perplexing, bizarrely hilarious and dense with ideas.
Our history books portray Florence Nightingale as angelic. She reportedly wrote, “I had the greatest difficulty in repelling Mrs. Seacole’s advances, and in preventing association between her and my nurses (absolutely out of the question!)…Anyone who employs Mrs. Seacole will introduce much kindness – also much drunkenness and improper conduct!” Wow! Victorian shade!
Mary was voted “Greatest Black Briton” in a 2004 poll. Why is she such an obscure figure here? Why is her pioneering nursing work unknown to us? She was the daughter of a Scottish soldier and a Creole woman. Is that the reason she’s an untold story? Playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury gives us many things to ponder after spending time with her work.
Fairview is returning to the New York stage in June at the Theater For a New Audience in Brooklyn. Both plays are highly recommended.
One Reply to “Marys Seacole (Lincoln Center Theatre)”