Latest news with #Nightingales
Boston Globe
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
A long-neglected Tennessee Williams play gets its moment to shine with a starry cast
'I believe in theater doing the most. Because our lives are the most,' director Robert O'Hara says in a Zoom interview from Advertisement 'We can't just live one portion of our lives. I can't just be a Black man. I'm also a queer man. I'm also a man of a certain age. I'm also an American,' O'Hara says. Williams based his play on an infamous instance of carceral brutality: Four men confined to a Philadelphia prison died after being locked in a room that was deliberately heated to lethal levels. Prison authorities put them there as punishment for participating in a hunger strike protesting conditions. A similar scenario unspools in 'Nightingales.' The story requires a large ensemble, but much of the action turns on the fraught relationship between an inmate named Jim and the prison's sadistic warden. Actor William Jackson Harper was inspired to play Jim for one overriding reason. Advertisement 'I'm scared of it. I don't really know how I'm supposed to play this part,' Harper says over the phone before a rehearsal. Harper earned his commercial breakthrough (and an Emmy nomination) with his much-loved turn on NBC's ' The prison setting of 'Nightingales' and Williams' use of period vernacular and speech patterns emulating those of 1930s Hollywood films make his role an 'experiment,' Harper says. 'It's about trying to play something outside of the things I would usually be considered for, or that are considered my strengths or my habits — trying to develop things that I feel a little more vulnerable about,' he adds. Chris Messina, who excelled as the handsome jerk on TV series including 'Six Feet Under,' ' Williams never saw a production of 'Nightingales,' which went unpublished during his lifetime. Clued in by a decades-old reference to the play, Dame Vanessa Redgrave asked Williams' literary executor to unearth the manuscript for a 1998 staging at London's Royal National Theatre directed by Trevor Nunn. The production went to Broadway the next year. The New York production was too 'polite' for O'Hara's taste. 'Tennessee Williams was one messy homosexual. This is a man who had lots of lovers, who was addicted to pills later on in his life. [Other productions] seem to try and clean up his work. I want to acknowledge the messiness,' O'Hara says. Advertisement The director is not afraid to give sacred cows a good smack on the rump. His radically reconstructed 'Hamlet' last month at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum posited Fortinbras of Norway, a character cut from many modern productions, as a detective spawned from film noir who investigates the mass killing that concludes the play. 'Nightingales' will hew closely to the text but be told 'through a contemporary lens,' O'Hara says. The production makes overt much of the homoerotic subtext that Williams layered into his story of men locked together in a cage, insisting on their own humanity. 'This play is very much a response to an injustice,' Harper says, 'but it isn't a piece of documentary theater. It's the work of someone who's inspired and just going for it.' Casting a Black actor as Jim — a role Williams envisioned as a white man,— adds another complication to a play bristling with contemporary relevance. 'Putting our two bodies on stage is going to create a certain energy,' Harper says of himself and Messina, 'and introduce a lot of dynamics. The way this warden behaves toward Jim, it's almost coded as if Jim was a Black man. There's a lot of language that becomes explicitly racist with this casting.' It all adds up to a tragic mess that remains stubbornly timely. 'At a time where we're rounding up immigrants and sending them overseas to prisons and throwing away the key,' O'Hara says, 'and we see the atrocities of the prison-industrial complex daily, I think it's very clear that how we treat those we confine tells a lot about our society.' Advertisement NOT ABOUT NIGHTINGALES Williamstown Theatre Festival, NikosStage Theater at the '62 Center. July 17 - August 2. Tickets: $100 or as part of a weekend pass; (413) 458-3253,
Hans India
11-05-2025
- Health
- Hans India
A salute to the ‘Lady with the Lamp', pioneer of modern nursing
For nearly two centuries, the name Florence Nightingale has been synonymous with compassion, care, and transformative impact on healthcare. Rising to prominence in the mid-19th century, Nightingale's work during the Crimean War and beyond made her one of the most celebrated women of her time, second only to Queen Victoria. Born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy, to wealthy British parents William and Frances Nightingale, Florence received a privileged upbringing. Her father, an advocate of education, provided her and her sister Parthenope with a robust curriculum, including mathematics, a subject that would later play a crucial role in her career. Despite her family's objections, Florence was determined to become a nurse, a profession considered disreputable for women of her social class. Overcoming these barriers, she trained in Germany and France, eventually becoming the superintendent of a hospital in London for distressed gentlewomen. Transformative work during the Crimean War In 1854, Nightingale and a team of 38 nurses were sent to Scutari Barrack Hospital in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) to care for British soldiers during the Crimean War. They found appalling conditions: overcrowded wards, poor sanitation, and rampant disease. Nightingale's emphasis on hygiene, clean bedding, proper nutrition, and medical supplies drastically reduced death rates, earning her the titles "Angel of the Crimea" and "Lady with the Lamp". Champion of sanitation and public health Nightingale's experience in the Crimean War solidified her commitment to hygiene and sanitation. When the British government sent a Sanitary Commission to Scutari in 1855, the mortality rate further plummeted as they improved drainage, purified water, and ensured cleaner living conditions. Nightingale's advocacy for such measures influenced hospital practices worldwide. Pioneering the use of statistics in healthcare Beyond her nursing achievements, Nightingale was a pioneer in the use of statistics for healthcare improvements. Collaborating with statistician William Farr, she used data to demonstrate that most deaths in the Crimean War were caused by preventable diseases rather than battle injuries. Her innovative visual representation, known as the "coxcomb" diagram, made her findings understandable to a broader audience. In recognition of her contributions, Nightingale became the first female fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 1858. Her statistical methods extended to other areas, including hospital administration, public health, and disease prevention. Proponent of nursing Education In 1860, Nightingale established the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, the world's first formal nursing school. Her curriculum emphasized both scientific knowledge and compassionate patient care, setting the foundation for modern nursing education. Graduates of the school, known as "Nightingales," became leaders in nursing across the world. A lasting legacy Confined to her home in later years due to chronic illness, Nightingale continued to influence health care through her writings, correspondence, and mentorship. She passed away on August 13, 1910, leaving a legacy of dedication, compassion, and pioneering reforms in nursing, healthcare, and public health. Florence Nightingale's life is a testament to the transformative power of determination, knowledge, and compassion. Her story remains a beacon of inspiration for those in the fields of nursing, medicine, and public health. (The writer is a retired principal from Hyderabad)
