Ruined, a play by Lynn Nottage, at the Huntington Theater. Directed by Liesl Tommy. We attended Saturday night, January 22, 2011.
What I liked about this play is that it took us places we don't think about or read about very often. We learn from the program notes that the Congo has undergone a civil war in which over 5 million people have died, and more than 200,000 women and girls have been raped. Many of our electronic devices depend on a rare earth mineral mined there, and the money from which helps to fuel the conflict.
It's hard to watch this play. It takes place in a brothel and bar near the mines, with rival soldiers roughing up the place and the women on different nights. What the women characters endure is what the play is about, their fear, their exploitation by the brothel mistress, Mama Nadi, and their savage handling by the men. Nottage demonstrates that attacking women, raping them, is a an act of revenge by all sides in the amorphous, chaotic war. That they continue to live, to talk about their suffering, and thus intimidate the enemy, makes it all the better for the attackers. Most of the violence happens off-stage, yet Nottage and the director, Liesl Tommy, find a way to express the brutality through frenzied dance. The soldiers and miners dance pantomimes of rape.
The story is mainly about the girls' attempt to survive and perhaps escape the brothel one day. We come to see Mama Nadi as a sympathetic mother figure. She is about survival, her own, and ultimately her girls.There are powerful moments as she maneuvers around the different sadistic commanders who spill through the bar. She generally outsmarts them. I wished she hadn't become such a saint by the end of the play. I did like Tonye Patano's portrayal of Mama Nadi, and Oberon Adjepong's Christian, the soulful trader who ultimately offers to love and save Mama Nadi. The dancing, though abhorrent in its objective, was well done in making clear that objective.
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