Ruined -- by Lynn Nottage (2009)
Description I was curious if Lynn Nottage kept a twitter. She does, and her bio reads, "Hunter and gatherer. Writer. Currently conjuring a new play, Mlima's Tale. " Her self-description sums her up perfectly. She hunts and gathers for the substance and sustenance of her material. Then, she writes. Her work is a conjuring: she takes what she has collected and creates something new with it all. Ruined is set in the Democratic Repulic of Congo. More specifically, it takes place within Mama Nadi's bar. She "both protects and profits from the women whose bodies have become battlegrounds between the government soldiers and rebel forces alike," according to the blurb on the back of the print copy. Yes, the play is set during a civil war. Yes, the play focuses of sex trafficking. Nottage addresses love, anger, and pain in her work as Salima and Sophie enter Mama Nadi's world. Their stories are amalgamations of true accounts of sex trafficking in the Congo. ...