SITE GUIDE
SEARCH
REVIEWS
REVIEW ARCHIVES
ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Connecticut
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
Writing for Us
A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewRuined
|
He called me a filthy dog and said I tempted them. Why else would it happen? — Salima
|
Pippa Bennett-Warner as Sophie and Kehinde Fadipe as Josephine (Photo: Tristram Kenton) |
Indhu Rubasingham has created a memorable production about the bar brothel run by Mama Nadi played by Jenny Jules, who also took the lead role in Lynn Nottage's comedy Fabulation, also directed by Ms Rubasingham when it played here at the Tricycle in London go here. The Congo atmosphere is helped by Robert Jones' wonderful revolving shanty set with its backdrop of charred jungle foliage and trees sharply illuminated as the set revolves.
At the beginning of the play, travelling salesman and supplier of Belgian chocolates, Christian (Lucian Msamati) arrives with two young women whom he wants Mama to take in. Sophie (Pippa Bennett-Warner) is young and very pretty and is the daughter of Christian's sister but she is "ruined". Sophie has been raped and genitally mutilated by enemy soldiers with bayonets. Salima (Michelle Asante) has been rejected by her family. Their mentor, Josephine (Kehinde Fadipe) is the star sex worker with legs as long as any I have seen and who expertly gyrates in the laps of the clients, notably the diamond trader, Lebanese Mr Harari (Silas Carson).
So far Mama Nadi has survived the war, her good business sense and robustness protecting her in a dangerous situation where both government officials and rebels patronise her bar. She is a Mother Courage for the twenty first century but like Elyse Sommer in New York I found Nottage's Ruined a more gripping play than Brecht's epic cart dragger. These women may appear to be coping but not very far beneath the surface is the trauma of what they have suffered. Even Josephine who seems the most together will in one scene dance more and more frenetically and seem to be frantically batting off some invisible enemy.
A side story is that of Salima (Michelle Asante), the other girl who arrives with Sophie. After being held, tethered like a goat and used sexually by enemy soldiers, her farmer husband has rejected her. She says of him, "he was too proud to bear my shame but not proud enough to protect me from it." Now a soldier, he tracks her down and waits patiently outside the bar hoping to see her but Mama will not let him in. Mama knows that despite his assurances the marriage can never work with the memories as to what Salima has been through. There is the terrible regret that her husband was away buying a cooking pot when she and her child were taken by the enemy army.
Two onstage musicians play drums and guitar and Sophie sings to the clients. We see Christian, a reformed alcoholic descend into alcoholism but ultimately show us that human decency still exists. Lucian Msamati is an actor of great sensitivity and presence. Jenny Jules is magnificent, tight as steel wire as the complex Mama Nadi, but ultimately vulnerable and hurt. She tells us that she has built her business from nothing, "She stumbled off that road without two twigs to start a fire." It is deeply affecting to see the change in Nadi. Okezie Morro plays the rebel leader Jerome Kisembe and his enemy, Commander Osembenga (Steve Toussaint) swaggers in as the government minister, vanity personified in a bright yellow track suit. There are terrific performances from the cast of young women, Pippa Bennett-Walker, Michelle Asante and Kehinde Fadipe.
Comic moments, music and dance lighten the play so that the terror of war does not feel relentless and Nottage's ending has hope. Dramatically Ruined will raise awareness so that the charitable efforts helping the mutilated women of the Congo have reconstructive surgery will be hopefully supported. But this play is much more than a political message, it is great drama.
|
Subscribe to our FREE email updates with a note from editor Elyse Sommer about additions to the website -- with main page hot links to the latest features posted at our numerous locations. To subscribe,
E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com
put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message -- if you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country. |
| Ruined
Written by Lynn Nottage Directed by Indhu Rubasingham Starring: Jenny Jules, Lucian Msamati, Pippa Bennett-Walker, Michelle Asante, Kehinde Fadipe With: Okezie Morro, Silas Carson, David Ajala, Joel Kangudi, Steve Toussaint, Damola Adelaja, Joseph Roberts, Akintayo Akinbode Design: Robert Jones Lighting: Oliver Fenwick Composer: Dominic Kanza Music Director: Akintayo Akinbode Sound: Christopher Shutt Choreographer: Coral Messam Fight Director: Bret Yount Sponsored by Coutts Running time: Two hours 30 minutes with one interval Box Office: 020 7359 4404 Booking to 5th June 2010 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 27th April 2010 performance at the Almeida, Almeida Street, London N1 1TA (Tube: Angel, Islington) |
|
REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email . . . also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy |
