ruined

My friend took me to see Ruined at the Manhattan Theatre Club {City Center} last night and it was quite memorable. It is a story about an independent woman - Mama Nadi - who runs a brothel in a small mining village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the girls who work there. Despite them being thrown around among rough soldiers here, it's a "safer and better" place for these girls who have been kidnapped from their villages or raped by soldiers or seen their family killed in front of them. The play is about the human spirit in times of war and turmoil - and between the amazing writing, characters and acting, it is such a heartbreaking piece. The final scene of the play was SO emotional - and I couldn't help but feel so much for these characters. Lynn Nottage, the playwright, spent two months at a Uganda refugee camp interviewing women who had been raped and brutalized in the fierce Civil War affecting the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo for decades...real life experiences setting the foundation for the characters. Ruined has been awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for drama - well deserved for this excellent production that sheds light on world issues of violence in places of conflict.


{ Poster images from Manhattan Theatre Club website }