002 Historical Drama – Old
Unusually, Dr Barry by
Jean Binnie was structured more like a dramatized biopic than a drama as such,
with a narrator. Nevertheless, it was
fascinating, well-written, and very well-acted.
If you haven’t heard of Dr Barry, you should really do yourself a favor
and read something about her. Born to
impoverished gentry in Ireland, out of economic necessity she reinvented
herself as a (male) medical student, then joined the army as a medic, a role
she held for nearly thirty years. Dr
Barry (Margaret) also had a child, probably as a teenager. That Dr Barry may have had a relationship
with the governor of her South African colony, Somerset, is intriguing; Binnie
points out that her existence must have been an incredibly lonely one. I was very gratified to hear Florence
Nightingale pooh-poohed for the self-serving, prejudiced sourpuss that she was;
she fell foul of Barry’s famously irascible temper. Originally from 1982—and a
fantastic and thorough biography about Barry has come out since then—Dr Barry was directed by Martin Jenkins
and starred Veronica Quilligan as the eponymous doctor. It also starred Gordon
Reid, Jonathan Tafler, John Fleming, Burt Caesar, Richard Earthy, John Webb,
Joanna Wake, Matthew Morgan, Jonathan Adams, Nicholas Murchie, and Maggie
McCarthy.
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