Marys Seacole NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (75)
See it if Astonishingly powerful examination of gender, race, and ethnicity. Compassionate and angry, tragic and funny. Unforgettable.
Don't see it if I sometimes had trouble understanding accents when speech was rapid and overlapping. (But ultimately, not a big problem.) Read more
See it if You’re open to experimental theater, bold questions about racial roles in caregiving, and want something provocative, bold, and rewarding.
Don't see it if You’re looking for a straightforward narrative or aren’t open to work that is more about themes and ideas than traditional plot.
See it if you want to be immersed in an abstract, multigenerational portrait of resilient femininity in the face of horror, colonialism, and war
Don't see it if you think this sounds like a play about "women's issues."
See it if you enjoy complicated commentaries on relationships between immigrants and whites in America. With great acting and writing.
Don't see it if you are not interested in human stories that also have political connotations. Read more
See it if you love Quincy Tyler Bernstine, she is one of NYC's best...you like being challenged in the theatre...you like boundary pushing play form
Don't see it if you're expecting something always logical and linear...you don't like to be challenged...you're not ready to bring yourself to the piece
See it if you love great acting by all, especially the brilliant, always spot on Bernstine; beautiful writing, directing and choreography.
Don't see it if you want a linear storyline - here time keeps changing though many attitudes do not; some saintly personas become unsaintly and vice versa. Read more
See it if you like all-female casts and production teams, plays about motherhood, being a daughter, a caregiver, an immigrant and a historic figure
Don't see it if you don't like stylized plays, different directing/acting styles in one play, breaking of the fourth wall, plays that don't hold your hand Read more
See it if Extraordinary, shatters the stage, time and space to think through global care work, invisible labor, and race. Killer staging and acting.
Don't see it if Went with a friend, who thought the entire play was too high-keyed & a constant state of screaming. She hated it. So your mileage may vary.
Critic Reviews (15)
"Breathless and radiant new play...Directed with head-spinning velocity and shape-shifting flair by Lileana Blain-Cruz...Individually, there’s nothing strikingly original in most of these scenes...Seen collectively, though, they become a dazzling hall of mirrors...Ms. Drury gloriously confirms her status as a playwright for whom the long view is disturbingly, divertingly and endlessly kaleidoscopic."
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"Lileana Blain-Cruz’s tight, controlled production immediately gives us that little thrill of delight that comes from the incongruous...The six women of 'Marys Seacole' are all delivering fierce, finely calibrated performances...'Marys Seacole' is in many ways an act of remembrance for the unremembered. It’s a fierce, complex eulogy and, like 'Fairview,' an exhortation to see both past and present better."
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"In Ms. Drury’s extensively fictionalized, magically realistic play, Mary becomes a symbol of the spirit of caregiving who is reincarnated time and again. The pluralized title is indicative of her varied versions...Drury dramatizes the successive phases of Mary Seacole’s life with pith and vigor, aided by the equally resourceful staging of Lileana Blain-Cruz...Blain-Cruz makes all the rough places plain, and the result is an exciting, involving show that catches you up from the first scene onward."
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"The playwright attempts to pack a lot into this intermissionless work's 90 minutes. Too much so, in fact, leaving the audience struggling to connect the confusing narrative dots. Mary Seacole's arresting story is too often left in the lurch, and the link between her and her modern-day successors isn't as emotionally resonant as clearly intended...The performances by the six-woman ensemble...could not be bettered, with Bernstine outstanding in the central role."
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"A powerful and arguably long-overdue tribute...Contemporary and historical scenes bleed together, staging a rich continuum in just 90 minutes...Drury tempers her perspicacity with surefire wit that will keep you laughing as the light bulb goes off in your brain...Director Lileana Blain-Cruz delivers well-choreographed pandemonium that sacrifices nothing in terms of clarity...One hell of a play."
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"The 90-minute piece tends to be more stylized than dramatically effective, but Drury convincingly makes her point about the short shrift Mary Seacole has been handed by history, as well of the lack of appreciation for those who carry on her legacy."
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"Provocative, yet confusing work...It needs to be acknowledged that Drury’s calling attention to the determined Seacole is commendable, as is her admiration for the invaluable benefits of widespread medical care...Actually, it’s Drury’s zeal that gets the better of her as her 90-minute play runs its anfractuous course...Drury has too much she’s compelled to say. She loses control of sorting her ideas so that audience members can follow them."
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"With its nonlinear structure, mashing up of situations, strong Jamaican accents, and several themes, the play is challenging to follow as it becomes increasingly expressionistic in style. The conclusion is scarcely coherent and demands clarification...Although the playwright does not fully control and articulate the themes of her ambitious, sprawling play, 'Marys Seacole' remains a thoughtful consideration of the women who serve others more than themselves."
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