It won't come as a surprise to learn that women and children are the ones who most regrettably suffer the consequences of wars that men make. That they are the most vulnerable victims of outrage and sexual brutality seems to be endemic. But if we do not meaningfully act in response to this horrifying aspect of life during war, civil or otherwise, especially in such places as the Democratic Republic of Congo, it won't be because playwright Lynn Nottage hasn't stirred our hearts and minds. She has written a gripping and stunning play that brings the plight of "ruined" women into close range.
Despite its discernable polemic and agitprop underpinnings, the drama pulsates with an implicit reality and with characters that resonate with impassioned and heart-breaking honesty. Nottage, who scored big with award-winning Intimate Apparel, exceeds our expectations with this significant play that has the qualities that should define it for Pulitzer-Prize consideration. The action takes place in a seedy bar and brothel in a small mining town in the Ituri Rainforest. Serving as an oasis for either the rebels or government militia (depending on who is in control at the moment), it is also a refuge for young women who have been abandoned, disgraced or dislocated.
The proprietress Mama Nadi (Saidah Arrika Ekulona) is a tough, resourceful woman who has fearlessly maintained political and social neutrality that she trusts will not jeopardize her relationship with the visiting miners and soldiers. Although Nottage's inspiration for Mama Nadi comes from Brecht's opportunistic, entrepreneurial Mother Courage, she invests in Mama Nadi with a much more naturalistic and humanistic quality. Mama has a touching, if no nonsense, regard for the women in her care and employ. These are women, mostly victims of rape, who have been shunned by their families and exiled from their villages. In a way, Mama Nadi is a savior/protector who holds all men in disdain. But she also feels she owns the women after purchasing them from Christian (Russell Gebert Jones), a traveling salesman.
Christian convinces Mama Nadi to give a safe haven and provide work to his beautiful and educated niece Sophie (Condola Rashad), who has been so brutalized that she can not be used for sex. She is reluctantly offered office work and persuaded to sing for the patrons. Sophie's relationship with Mama Nadi is as difficult as it is with the jealous Josephine (Cherise Boothe), who boldly and provocatively demonstrates her eagerness to please. Sophie is more compassionately inclined toward Salima (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), who had suffered in the hands of soldiers who tied her to a tree and used her for sex for five months.
In keeping with the more embracing tradition of drama, the political aspects are mainly kept beyond the bar's wooden walls and the stripped forest beyond (evocatively designed by Derek McLane and atmospherically lighted by Peter Kaczorowski).
Original music by Dominic Kanza plays an integral part in the drama, as do emotional upheavals, and scenes of violence. Even though the relationship between Christian, who remains a poet and lover at heart and Mama Nadi, whose callousness proves penetrable, appears as a post-traumatic resolve, it is most welcome after a series of harrowing dramatic encounters.
Because the acting by the cast of twelve is uniformly excellent, I will address as exceptional the towering vibrancy of Ekulona's Mama Nadi and Jones' marvelously animated Christian.
The play, under Kate Whoriskey's controlled direction is a result of Nottage's visit to Uganda in 2004 where she interviewed brutalized Congolese women. It is out of these horrific stories that Nottage has forged an extraordinary drama of survival, pain and dramatic scope. It is undoubtedly one of the best plays of the year and is not only rewarded by the splendid production, it has been given by the Manhattan Theatre Club, but also deserving of an extended life way beyond it limited run.
