Marys Seacole by Jackie Sibblies Drury
15 April – 4 June 2022

Donmar Warehouse

Marys Seacole by Jackie Sibblies Drury
Marys Seacole by Jackie Sibblies Drury
“Scene One:
Mary Seacole stands before us.
If you don’t know who she is, well,
look her the f**k up.”
 

Mary Seacole was the pioneering Jamaican nurse who bravely voyaged to heal soldiers in the Crimean War. She was a traveller, a hotelier and a businesswoman. She was the most impressive woman you’ve ever met.

Putting the concept of a biopic through a kaleidoscope, MARYS SEACOLE is a dazzling exploration across oceans and eras of what it means to be a woman who is paid to care, and how, ultimately, no one is in charge of their own story.

Directed by Nadia Latif, the UK premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Jackie Sibblies Drury’s celebrated new play reunites the team behind her critically-acclaimed Fairview in 2019.

Jackie Sibblies Drury (Writer)
Jackie’s plays include Marys Seacole – OBIE Award, Fairview – 2019 Pulitzer Prize, Really, Social Creatures, and We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915. The presenters of her plays include the Young Vic, Lincoln Center Theatre, Soho Rep, Berkeley Rep, New York City Players & Abrons Arts Center, Victory Gardens, Trinity Rep, Woolly Mammoth, Undermain Theatre, InterAct Theatre, Actors Theater of Louisville, Company One, and the Bush Theatre. 

Jackie has developed her work at Sundance, Bellagio Center, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Soho Rep. Writer/Director Lab, New York Theatre Workshop, Bushwick Starr, LARK, and MacDowell Colony, among others.  She has received the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a Jerome Fellowship at The LARK, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, and a Windham-Campbell Literary Prize in Drama.  

Nadia Latif (Director)
Nadia is a theatre maker, screenwriter and director and trained at RADA. From 2018 – 2020, she was Genesis Director at the Young Vic, where she directed the acclaimed UK premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Fairview in 2019.

Nadia’s other theatre credits include Nightclubbing (Lowry/Camden People’s Theatre/Tour), Fall of the Kingdom and Rise of the Footsoldier (RSC), Octagon and But I Cd Only Whisper and The Ballad of Crazy Paola (Arcola), Homegrown (NYT), Even Stillness Breathes Slowly Against a Brick Wall (Soho), Carrot (Latitude/Theatre503), Coalition, Wild Horses and Slaves (Theatre503).

Nadia’s film credits include They Heard Him Shout Allahu Akbar (Film4), My England (Young Vic) and White Girl (BFI).

NEED TO KNOW: Marys Seacole by Jackie Sibblies Drury is at the Donmar Warehouse from 15 April – 4 June 2022