Live Arts Theater’s 2024/25 Voyages Season continues with the Virginia premiere of “Marys Seacole,” Jackie Sibblies Drury’s time-travelling chronicle inspired by the real-life of Mary Seacole.
Directed by Aiyana Straughn, the production is presented by Bernie Murphy & Patricia Simpson and sponsored by the City of Charlottesville Office of Social Equity.
“’Marys Seacole’ is in many ways an act of remembrance for the unremembered … an exhortation to see both past and present better,” Sara Holdren of New York Magazine said.
Based on the real-life Mary Seacole, a 19th century Jamaican nurse, adventurer and entrepreneur, Drury’s “Marys Seacole” sets sail on a fast-paced kaleidoscopic voyage across oceans, time-shifting through the centuries.
The audience meets many Marys – a West Indian nanny watching her charge on a Manhattan playground, Mary at a nursing school practicing triage, and at a contemporary nursing home, Mary on the Crimean battlefield, and Mary everywhere and every-when else. “Marys Seacole” is the tale of an extraordinary woman, chronicling the strength and empathy of women through the centuries paid to care.
The New York Times called the production “… breathless and radiant … a dazzling hall of mirrors … ”
“Drury tells this story from a transcendental space within the global Black woman experience. There are particular caregiving experiences that Black women across the diaspora encounter, and it is important to continue to shed light upon them and peer beyond the surface. For me, Drury’s interpretation of [Mary Seacole’s] story beckons us to
rest, remember, and reimagine ourselves and what our world could be,” Straughn said.
Live Arts’ production features Christiana Mitchell as Mary, Haydn Haring as May, Madison Patterson as Miriam, Marty Moore as Merry, Cadessa Davis as Mamie, Simona Holloway as Duppy Mary, Allyson Grant (Miriam US), Miriam Halpern (Merry US) and Rory Adams (Mamie US).
“Marys Seacole” received its premiere production at LCT3 at Lincoln Center in 2019, and has subsequently been produced by Mosaic Theater in Washington, D.C., The Donmar Warehouse (London), Griffin Theatre (Chicago) and the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.
“Marys Seacole” will have 12 performances in the Gibson Theater, February 14 through March 2, at Live Arts Theater, 123 E. Water Street, in Charlottesville. Tickets are $28 per adult and $25 per student and senior citizen. Tickets are available through the Box Office at [email protected], by phone at 434-977-4177 x123 or online.
Live Arts will host two special events for “Marys Seacole“: an opening night reception following the performance on February 14 and post-show audience talk-back on February 27 (7:30 p.m. curtain). Audiences are welcome to enjoy beverages and concessions one hour prior to the performance and at intermission.
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Rebecca Barnabi
