"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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