Posts Tagged ‘Africa’

     Playwright Lynn Nottage went to Uganda in 2004 to interview women living in the refugee camps there who have fled the brutality of the Congolese Civil war.   That war, which has claimed more than 5 million lives — is considered the world’s worst conflict since WWII. Violence against women — especially sexual violence — has been a particularly horrific part of that conflict.
      “Ruined,” the searing work for which she won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for drama, is the result of that trip.   Rape has been one of the cruelest weapons soldiers, on both sides, have used against Congolese women — often forcing them into exile from their families and communities. 
      That’s what all the women gathered at Mama Nadi’s — the central character surviving by her wits — and who owns a brothel — have in common. They have all been raped. They are all ‘ruined.’ And they are so alive.
      Nottage, who was awarded a MacArthur ‘genius’ grant in 2007, captures their struggle — and their sorrows — as they try to survive the brutality and the horror all around them.
      The playwright told The New York Times in an interview: “So much writing about Africa is like pornography, depicting only the violence. I also wanted to show the beauty, how gorgeous it is.”
     “Ruined,” originated at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and is now at Manhattan Theatre Club.  The play, directed by Kate Whoriskey, is loosely based on Bertold Brecht’s “Mother Courage.”
     Go see “Ruined.” It will leave you heartbroken — and exalted. It’s playing until September 6.