![\"RuinedWeb.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/RuinedWeb.jpg?resize=260%2C356\")
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<\/span>The <\/span>The <\/span>Some <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" photograph: Hugo Glendinning Ought we to be entertained by the truly horrible? The 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Ruined, by Lynn Nottage, is the first play I’ve ever seen that turns on gynecological matters, for in civil-strife-torn Congo, a woman who has been “ruined” has not just been raped, but mutilated. British reviewers have, perhaps understandably, been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbv6zV-bM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nnumbers are staggering. This is not simply a feminist issue – if the facts were
\nmore widely known it would not only help the victims of rape (and tribal, Hutu
\nv. Tutsi, violence, and the rush for the DRC’s minerals), but also help us gain
\nsome perspective on the world’s other conflict hotspot. The Middle East has
\nnothing of comparable depravity.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nextraordinary thing is that Ms Nottage has been able to make a play of this (now
\nat the Almeida until 5 June, www.almeida.co.uk), and an enjoyable one, too. This
\nowes something to Robert Jones’s clever revolving set, which gives us both the
\noutside and interior of Mama Nadi’s bar-brothel near a mining village in a part
\nof the DRC. But also Nottage has created full, rounded characters, played with
\ntotal conviction by a cast brimming with talent. At least three of the superb
\nactors in this all-but-one-black company have just graduated from drama
\nschool. <\/span>The playwright and
\ndirector Indhu Rubasingham have managed to stage a play that leaves you feeling
\nthat hope is not dead and pleasure is still possible, no mean feat when more
\nthan one of the characters indicates the meaning of the title. Joyfully dealing
\nwith the genuinely horrible, Jenny Jules as Mama Nadi shows star quality – and
\nso do several others: Pippa Bennett-Warner as Sophie, the educated “ruined”
\ngirl, Michelle Asante as the married woman Salima and Kehinde Fadipe as the
\napparent good-time girl, Josephine. The boys are terrific, too, though some
\nlook almost too fetching in their camouflage uniforms and combat boots.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nof my theatre critic colleagues have complained that the upbeat ending rings
\nfalse, and others have even felt that it betrays the misery and wickedness
\ndepicted in the rest of the drama. I’m not sure. I felt at the time that the
\nwit and flashes of good humour of Nottage’s dialogue showed that Mama Nadi has
\na soft centre missing in her obvious predecessor, Mother Courage, that makes
\nher a bit more like the hard-bitten professional women in 1930s Hollywood
\nScrewball comedies. It’s true that the final scene is not as strong as what
\nwent before; but it’s an exhilarating evening for all that.<\/span><\/p>\n