Kayla Meikle in Marys Seacole
(Picture: Marc Brenner)Mary Seacole was a courageous Jamaican nurse who not enough people have heard of. Born in Kingston, she ran a successful hotel caring for the sick, before travelling to nurse the British soldiers during the Crimean War. It’s such a shame that Mary Seacole’s little-known story competes for attention in Jackie Sibblies Drury’s muddled time-travelling drama.
You would be wrong to assume, given the title of the play, that this is a biopic solely focused on Mary Seacole’s life. Rather, Sibblies Drury is more concerned with drawing out the similarities between the healthcare landscapes in the 19th century, when Seacole lived, and the modern-day.
