Six years ago, Jackie Sibbles Drury wrote a play about a zombie apocalypse, titled “Social Creatures.” Her new play, which opened Monday at LCT’s Claire Tow Theater, is about a health-care apocalypse, titled “Marys Seacole.”
Mariana Sanchez’s very mutable set begins as a hospital room, but before anyone gets the idea that you’re in for another of those ponderous deathbed dramas, you should know that Drury will eventually take us to a battlefield in the Crimean War, where the real-life Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale carried out their own personal war to nurse the British soldiers there. (Seacole remains a controversial figure. Her statue in London continues to inspire protests from Nightingale’s fans.)
We’ll also witness a staged trauma rehearsal in a modern hospital that the fictional nurse Mary manages with slapstick panache. Both Marys were born in Jamaica, and are played in grand style by Quincy Tyler Bernstine, giving the performance of this winter season in New York City.
Drury keeps switching the story between the two Marys, who appear to be in direct communication with each other a 100-plus years apart. They wear identical earphones. Bernstine manages the time lapses seamlessly, and is immeasurably aided by Lileana Blain-Cruz’s direction, which is both over-the-top and precisely what a big saga like “Marys Seacole” requires (despite its 90-minute running time.
Sitting through this version of the Crimean War in the tiny Tow Theater, you feel like you’ve visited a battlefield — and that doesn’t include the verbal fireworks between Seacole and Nightingale (Lucy Taylor, being comically condescending).
There are also quiet moments that expose a more seasoned sense of humor. The modern Mary and her younger Jamaican nurse friend Mamie (Gabby Beans) are minding their own business during a hospital break when a new mother (Ismenia Mendes) with a baby carriage feels the need to unload her problems on them.
Sitting there on the park bench, Mary doesn’t say much; her expressions and gestures do all the talking as she cautions Mamie not to get involved with this person from the white world. It’s trouble. Mary and Mamie embody those caregivers you see on the streets of New York City, attending other people’s grandparents, and you wonder, who’s caring for their grandparents? It’s a dilemma Cruz makes abundantly clear with the play’s final tableau.
As written by Drury, neither Mary is a saint. The modern Mary’s tough façade probably doesn’t make her the greatest caregiver the world has ever seen. And far more curious is Drury’s portrait of the real Mary, who can’t stop talking about her mixed heritage and the strong Scottish blood coursing through her veins.
A powerful visual leitmotif in “Marys Seacole” is the real Mary’s mother, who rarely leaves the stage or stops walking. She doesn’t say anything, but Karen Kandel makes her an awesome, towering presence. When she does finally open her mouth, it’s to rant: What’s her daughter doing caring for all those white people?
The Jamaican accents here are very pronounced, and not everything was unintelligible to these ears. Suffice to say, the ensuing spectacle of two titanic actors ripping into each other makes riveting theater, like hearing a great opera duet even when you don’t know the language being sung.
Broadway's 12 Top-Grossing Non-Musical Plays of All Time, From 'War Horse' to 'Harry Potter' (Photos)
Broadway isn't just for musicals. Here are the all-time top-grossing straight plays on the Great White Way, according to grosses compiled by the Broadway League up to March 8, 2020. (These figures aren't adjusted for inflation, so recent hits at current sky-high ticket prices have a definite advantage.)
12. "700 Sundays" (2004-05; 2013-14)
Total gross: $32,029,177
Billy Crystal's autobiographical one-man show found favor in two separate runs on Broadway nearly a decade apart.
Photo: Carol Rosegg
11. "Betrayal" (2019)
Total gross: $32,621,468
Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Cox and Zawe Ashton packed 'em in for the fourth Broadway production of Harold Pinter's time-bending drama.
10. "August: Osage County" (2007-09)
Total gross: $32,835,606
Tracy Letts' Pulitzer-winning drama became a huge hit on stage without any big stars -- and then a 2013 movie starring with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.
9. "Proof" (2000-03)
Total gross: $32,896,994
David Auburn's drama about a woman with a troubled legacy of both mental illness and genius-level math skills earned multiple Tony Awards, including for star Mary-Louise Parker.
8. "The Play That Goes Wrong" (2017-19)
Total gross: $34,341,708
This farce about an amateur theater company's mishap-prone production of a mystery play is another London import that found popularity on this side of the Atlantic.
7. "God of Carnage" (2009-10)
Total gross: $37,345,584
Yasmina Reza's barnstorming dramedy about two dueling couples earned the Tony for Best Drama -- as well as nominations for James Gandolfini, Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden and Hope Davis.
6. "It's Only a Play" (2014-15)
Total gross: $37,500,966
Terrence McNally's backstage comedy was a huge hit thanks to the Broadway reteaming of Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, stars of the Tony-winning musical "The Producers" a decade before.
5. "Angels in America" (2018 revival)
Total gross: $40,937,028
The 2018 revival of Tony Kushner's two-part epic won three Tony Awards, including for co-stars Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane.
4. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" (2014-16)
Total gross: $68,321,435
Another London import, Simon Stephens' adaptation of Mark Haddon's YA novel follows an autistic boy on a quest for the killer of his neighbor's dog.
Photo: Joan Marcus
3. "War Horse" (2011-13)
Total gross: $74,975,253
Michael Morpurgo's YA novel about a British boy's search for his horse in World War I inspired both this epic play, complete with life-size puppets, and Steven Spielberg's 2011 film.
2. "To Kill a Mockingbird" (2018 - )
Total gross: $120,211,443* (as of March 8, 2020)
Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of the beloved Harper Lee novel may have been snubbed by Tony nominators for Best Play, but it has been drawing crowds since opening in December 2018.
1. "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two" (2018 - )
Total gross: $174,056,581* (as of March 8, 2020)
The stage sequel to J.K. Rowling's saga about the now-grown boy wizard has extra advantages -- since it's a two-night (and two-ticket) epic that plays in a musical-sized auditorium to diehard Potterheads.
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You don’t need an orchestra — or songs — to draw audiences
Broadway isn't just for musicals. Here are the all-time top-grossing straight plays on the Great White Way, according to grosses compiled by the Broadway League up to March 8, 2020. (These figures aren't adjusted for inflation, so recent hits at current sky-high ticket prices have a definite advantage.)
Robert Hofler, TheWrap's lead theater critic, has worked as an editor at Life, Us Weekly and Variety. His books include "The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson," "Party Animals," and "Sexplosion: From Andy Warhol to A Clockwork Orange, How a Generation of Pop Rebels Broke All the Taboos." His latest book, "Money, Murder, and Dominick Dunne," is now in paperback.