Kayla Meikle will star in the title role of Marys Seacole at London's Donmar Warehouse, the U.K. premiere of the work from Pulitzer-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury. Meikle will lead a cast that includes Déja J. Bowens (in her professional stage debut) as Mamie, Llewella Gideon as Duppy Mary, Esther Smith as Miriam, Olivia Williams as May, and Susan Wooldridge as Merry.
The production begins April 15 and opens April 21, continuing through June 4.
Meikle's theatre credits include National Theatre performances of Paradise, and Shakespeare's Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. She also starred in All My Sons at the Old Vic and A Midsummer Night's Dream at Lyric Hammersmith.
Gideon and Williams will be returning to Donmar after starring in The Vote and Hotel in Amsterdam, respectively. Previously, Smith starred in The Young Vic's Fairview (also by Drury) and Palace Theatre's Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Wooldridge's credits include Hay Fever at Citizens and Lyceum Theatre and Uncle Vanya at Almeida Theatre.
The work, following a real-life Jamaican nurse who worked during the Crimean War, will be directed by Nadia Latif, who leads a creative team that includes stage designer Tom Scutt, lighting designer Jessica Hung Han Yun, sound designer and composer Xana, movement director Theo TJ Lowe, fight director Kev McCurdy, and vocal and dialect coach Hazel Holder. Casting is by Anna Cooper.
The piece had its world premiere Off-Broadway in 2019 at Lincoln Center Theater, helmed by Lileana Blain-Cruz and starring Quincy Tyler Bernstine in the title role; Drury and director Blain-Cruz won Special Citation Obie Awards for their work. A filmed performance of this production was streamed via the From the LCT Archives series last year.
