Use the form below to search for tickets on your desired date. Dates from
Synopsis In a small mining town deep in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country ravaged by the world’s deadliest civil war, Mama Nadi is forced to reassess her business priorities and personal loyalties as the realities of life in war provide the ultimate test for the human spirit. Ruined was the winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. European premiere
Jenny Jules as Mama Nadi & Lucian Msamati as Christian
Date: 26 April 2010
American Lynn Nottage's new drama Ruined, which received its European premiere at the Almeida Theatre last Thursday (22 April 2010, previews from 15 April), arrives with not just a Pulitzer Prize but also a slew of Best Play awards to its name – and, as far as most London critics are concerned, has proved that it deserves them.
The play, inspired by Brecht's Mother Courage, is set in a bar-cum-brothel in a small mining town in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As tales of local atrocities spread and tensions between rebels and government militia rise, shrewd Mama Nadi must reassess her business priorities and personal loyalties when two “ruined” girls arrive on her doorstep seeking shelter.
Ruined was first seen in a co-production between the Manhattan Theatre Club and Chicago's Goodman Theatre last year. The new Almeida production is directed by Indhu Rubasingham and designed by Robert Jones. It continues until 5 June 2010.
** DON’T MISS our Whatsonstage.com Outing to RUINED on 13 May 2010, including a FREE drink & access to our EXCLUSIVE post-show reception with the cast - click here for details! **
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (three stars) – “War, rape and pillage form the background to American playwright Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Ruined, a rumble in the jungle which is set in a bar brothel near a small mining town in the Congo... It’s a tinder-box situation, kept simmering with infectious onstage music... Nottage, who researched the play by visiting the tragic district and talking to many local people, creates a vivid and depressing picture of a hell-hole where the militia clean up and everyone else suffers; but women suffer most. Indhu Rubasingham’s production ... has an oppressive, dank and teeming jungle atmosphere but cannot fully disguise the somewhat flat and platitudinous quality of the writing... Jenny Jules holds it all together with a quicksilver display of accommodation and cunning, making the best of a bad job, like Mother Courage, but finding humanity in horror, too.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (four stars) – “Lynn Nottage's play arrives in London laden with American honours. And rightly so... It reminds us of the continuing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which rarely makes the front pages but has led to 5.4 million deaths... What Nottage brings out strongly is the multiple sufferings inflicted on women... Without minimising the pain, it becomes a tribute to women's endurance... Direction, design and acting are also first-rate... Jenny Jules excellently captures all Mama's qualities: her arrogance and pride, her limited economic vision, and her maternal protectiveness... It's not merely a good play. It jolts our conscience about a forgotten conflict. One emerges both shaken and stirred.”
Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard (four stars) – “Engaging where it might in less skilful hands have been crassly confrontational, it’s a disturbing portrait of the conflict that continues to convulse the Democratic Republic of Congo — leavened by some sweet humour and an affirmation of the potency of love... The women are treated as property, and this reflects the larger ills of a society that, in its rich supply of raw materials and resulting lawlessness, resembles the Wild West. There are sympathetic performances by Jenny Jules as Mama, a slinky version of Brecht’s Mother Courage, and Lucian Msamati as Christian, a poetic Mr Fix-It... This is an exceptionally powerful piece of writing, and Indhu Rubasingham’s direction proves pulsatingly intelligent, while the rough and unfamiliar setting is brilliantly realised by designer Robert Jones. At times, Ruined may be sentimental and preachy, yet it satisfies deeply.”
Dominic Cavendish in the Daily Telegraph (four stars) – “Even if you didn’t know that one starting-point for this imaginative response was Brecht’s Mother Courage, you’d fairly likely spot the connections… Nottage’s play reaches too obviously for a reassuring resolution. Some of its characterisation remains frustratingly sketchy. And the song-and music-drenched ‘devil-may-care’ bar atmosphere veers at times towards a soothing species of exotic entertainment. Yet it’s easy to see why Ruined has scooped the Pulitzer Prize… It shines an invaluable light on an area of the world most of us know too little about, or choose to ignore. And it starkly delineates the gruesome gender divide in conflicts of this kind… Jenny Jules mines the part of Mama Nadi for all its glittering, multi-faceted insouciance, sternness and furtive tenderness; Pippa Bennett-Warner captivates as the shy but resilient Sophie, casting cares aside in exquisite song-interludes; and Lucian Msamati introduces a rare and welcome note of masculine propriety and poetical sensitivity as the war-weary salesman, Christian. Recommended.”
Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times (four stars) – “Lynn Nottage’s superb, Pulitzer prize-winning play, receiving its European premiere here, is certainly harrowing… It is also, remarkably, often funny and not without hope. This is a play not just about brutality but also about survival, as Indhu Rubasingham’s exemplary production makes clear… Rubasingham ratchets up the tension… But there are moments of tenderness too, which the cast bring out beautifully… The play could do more to substantiate the male characters, to convey the intricacies of the conflict and to examine why rape is used in this way. But this is a brave, significant and humane drama. And Rubasingham’s fine staging, laced with evocative music, brings home the way the atrocities of war have ruined not just Sophie, but nearly everyone on stage.”
Lucy Powell in Metro (five stars) – “Bearing heavy overtones of Brecht, politics swill around the stage… You could quibble. The directorial arsenal of Indhu Rubasingham is at times lamentably monotonal, supposedly terrifying commanders stutter and Nottage’s script carries some ungainly oddities… But there’s no arguing with the devastating triumvirate of defiant women at this play’s heart. Jenny Jules’ Mama Nadi is a superbly unrepentant, puffed-up creation and Pippa Bennett-Warner and Michelle Asante are equally potent as the damaged goods she shelters. Nottage doesn’t flinch from unearthing a pit of ruination in her tightly plotted play. But its haunting beauty lies in its insistence on the undying possibility of renewal. Extraordinary.”
** DON’T MISS our Whatsonstage.com Outing to RUINED on 13 May 2010, including a FREE drink & access to our EXCLUSIVE post-show reception with the cast - click here for details! **
War, rape and pillage form the background to American playwright Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Ruined, a rumble in the jungle which is set in a bar brothel near a small mining town in the Congo.
Mama Nadi (Jenny Jules) has a business to run and ten girls to feed; we meet three of them, one on the run from her husband, who have gravitated here as both refugees and sex workers. The clientele includes a travelling salesman, Christian (Lucian Msamati), who has a special relationship developing with Mama, a Lebanese diamond merchant (Silas Carson) and various militia men and rebel soldiers.
It’s a tinder-box situation, kept simmering with infectious onstage music played by Joseph Roberts and Akintayo Akinbode, and one that has resulted from years of genocide and exploitation. Nottage, who researched the play by visiting the tragic district and talking to many local people, creates a vivid and depressing picture of a hell-hole where the militia clean up and everyone else suffers; but women suffer most.
Indhu Rubasingham’s production, lavishly designed by Robert Jones and beautifully lit by Oliver Fenwick, has an oppressive, dank and teeming jungle atmosphere but cannot fully disguise the somewhat flat and platitudinous quality of the writing, which is much better at reportage than revelatory description, humour or even the rhetoric of war-mongering.
It’s clear, for instance, that Steve Toussaint’s fearsome commander in a yellow tracksuit is a man to be reckoned with, but we don’t really understand the complicated tribal allegiances behind the atrocities committed at the hospital or in the trafficking of valuable minerals. And there’s not much in the way of character drawing.
You do get a sense, though, of the hopeless political turmoil that destroys families and casts freedom fighters as rebels in a corrupt militia, and Mama’s three girls – played with great spirit and physical expressiveness by Pippa Bennett-Warner, Michelle Asante and Kehinde Fadipe – strike a piteous bargain of transitory pleasures in a nightmare scenario that leads to a flashpoint of bloody and fatal disaster.
Jenny Jules holds it all together with a quicksilver display of accommodation and cunning, making the best of a bad job, like Mother Courage, but finding humanity in horror, too, and even temporary solace in the company of Msamati’s likeable salesman who’s exchanged his soft drinks for the hard stuff and his threadbare apparel for a shiny blue suit.
** DON’T MISS our Whatsonstage.com Outing to RUINED on 13 May 2010, including a FREE drink & access to our EXCLUSIVE post-show reception with the cast - click here for details! **
Ruined has been compared to Mother Courage but as I avoid Brecht the nearest point of reference I have is The Overwhelming which was a remarkable play about Rwanda at the National. Ruined concerns a group of women trying to maintain a bar / brothel in the midst of the Congo civil war. It is not as good as The Overwhelming but does provide a remarkably atmospheric experience thanks to excellent set, sound and lighting. I will probably remember it most for an unexpectedly happy ending and a superb central peerformance from Jenny Jules as Mama, apparently heartless but ultimately sensitive and vulnerable. - David Baxter
02 Jun 10
This is a hugely important play, helping us to understand the ongoing conflict in Congo and those caught in the middle of it, particularly women. It has clearly moved beyond political power (was it ever?) and taken on a life of its own with many self-interested factions fighting over money (and access to it) as much as anything else and prepared to commit appalling crimes including rape and mutilation to achieve their ends. You may think ’what has theatre got to do with this?’ – well, I happen to think it has a role to explain and illuminate what’s going on in our world and this play, by American writer Lynn Nottage, is therefore very welcome…..but seing it is often a disturbing and very harrowing experience. The first act sets the scene, introduces the characters and puts their situation into context. Mama runs a bar for miners, soldiers and those passing through offering rather more than beer. Her girls are refugees, disowned by their families after having been raped and mutilated for no fault of their own. It is in the second act – a masterpiece of writing, direction and acting – where the full truth emerges as events turn violent. Salima’s story (based on a very real person’s experiences) breaks your heart and the situation seems completely hopeless. However, the play ends with a humanity which lifts you and provides a modicum of hope for you to take away from the theatre. Indhu Rubasingham’s direction is impeccable. Robert Jones has created an extraordinarily believable bush hut which revolves to provide the bar, porch and bedroom. The ensemble is excellent and at its core there are two truly magnificent performances from Jenny Jules and Lucian Msamati. I’ve never seen a standing ovation in my many visits to the Almeida, and this completely impulsive one was richly deserved. Not an easy evening, but an absolute must-see experience.
- Gareth James
08 May 10
The best piece of theatre I've seen this year. An astonishing central performance by the ever-wonderful Jenny Jules, supported by a superb ensemble. It's true the writing doesn't explain the different sides or what they are fighting for but this misses the point - it's about the emotional consequences of war, not rhetoric. (White Guard gets very bogged down with endless tedious discussion of who is on which side). Don't miss Ruined, it won 7 Best Play awards for a reason! - dgr1
05 May 10
Once again a Pulitzer winner is being praised for the issues it covers rather than its merit as a pice of theatre, but a fantastic set and brilliant performances can't cover the fact that the writing is weak and the direction predictable. - Coralbee
30 Apr 10
Very intense, informative drama about the abuse and disregard of human life in the Congo.Superb acting - Jill Taunton
28 Apr 10
This play was superb. I saw it on the 2nd night and was utterly gripped from beginning to end. The performances were top notch and the way the writer managed to interweave horror and humanity was incredibly moving. Many people in the audience were in tears. Not just a fantastic play, also a very important one. - Sarah
23 Apr 10
If you can see this play for yourself then do so.
The WOS reviewer has done this play an injustice by giving it only a 3star-OK rating. No way is it just 'OK'.
I went to the first performance and there was a full standing ovation. Jenny Jules, Lucian Msamati and the whole cast give fantastic performances! Enough to move me to tears. A powerful story with the right balance of humour and heartbreak. Definitely a must see. - B Martin
Whatsonstage.com - Discount London theatre tickets, theatre news and reviews, Theatre videos, Theatre discussion, National Theatre Listings. Covering London's West End, all of Theatreland and all UK theatre. The best
for London Theatre Ticket Discounts.
