saint mary's theatre program presents "the excavation of mary anning"

Image C/O Saint Mary's Theatre Program

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By Emily Brazeal
On-Campus Columnist

“We all grew up loving dinosaurs” is a completely spot-on statement by playwright Ian August that explains why his play The Excavation of Mary Anning is so enjoyable. Even if we gave up on our childish ambitions of being a paleontologist like in Jurassic Park, our interest is still probably peaked at the mention of these ancient animals. Mary Anning had everything from female empowerment to a talking dog to having every accent imaginable portrayed. It was truly a constantly entertaining show. 


But let us back up for a second and start from the beginning. On November 1-3 and 8-10 Saint Mary’s Theater Program performed The Excavation of Mary Anning, which details the life of paleontologist Mary Anning, who was active during the 1800s. The play humorously shows the obstacles that Anning–and her dog Tray–had to overcome such things as sexist members of the geological society, creating her own store to sell her found fossils and trying not to get eaten by live dinosaur bones. Of course, even through all of the humor, this play illuminates the difficulty that Anning had to face as a woman to achieve recognition and respect in the academic field. 

The cast did a wonderful job of portraying this serious story with excellent humor. Ka’Nayah Landers-Daniels, who played Mary Anning, gave it a perfect air of solemnity and dedication necessary to express Mary Anning’s passion for paleontology. It was initially unclear that Anning’s companion Tray was a dog until she started picking up sticks and nibbling on people’s ankles. However, Erin Brady portraying Tray was completely hilarious and kept the audience in laughter from the very beginning when she sprinted across the stage shouting, “Running, Running, Running!” Another intriguing detail of the play was their use of switching gender roles. Connor McGilvary’s portrayal of Anning’s mom conjured up hilarious memories of John Travolta in Hairspray. Lucy Bikahi played many roles but her most memorable was the overly sensual French man Cuvier, who humorously expressed Americans’ stereotypical image of a French person when he declared that he “must remain aloof.”

My one complaint is that it took far too long for the enormous dinosaur-skeleton puppets to come out. These giant puppets were extremely well crafted and fascinating to watch as they brought to life Anning’s connection to her digs. The set also helped transport the audience into Mary’s digging experience with English bluffs constructed out of plastic donated by the community.

After the actors took their final bow, Ian August and Environmental & Earth Science faculty member Nekesha Williams dug into the bones of the play. August mentioned that he watched a video describing Anning’s previously untold story and was completely fascinated. He was unsure if he was going to write about it until the results of the 2016 election struck. He said that “something clicked” and this began his 8-year journey with Mary Anning. He told the audience that once Anning died, the archaeological society wiped all of her name from the records in an effort to erase her contributions to history.

The play ended with Anning still struggling to get recognized for all of her hard work but also showed Mary enlightening a young girl on the joys of paleontology. Even though Anning’s work may not have been fully recognized within her lifetime she was able to pass down her knowledge to the next generation of women in science. This play illuminates the hardship for women in history as well as women now, but it also reminds us that struggles and adversaries don’t prevent us from having a lasting influence on others. 

Who knew that dinosaurs could have so much meaning behind them? The Excavation of Mary Anning was an overall great show and I cannot wait to see the next one from Saint Mary’s Theater Program.
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