Berkeley Rep Blog

Previous entry: Backstage haiku
Next entry: Congratulations Daniel, Eric, and Ed!

Rhapsodizing about Ruined

posted by Karen McKevitt on Mon, Mar 7, 2011
in News , Our shows

Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about resilient women in the war-torn Congo opened last Wednesday and earned rave reviews from our local critics. In fact, this production has been wowing audiences and critics around the country, and tickets here in the Bay Area are going fast, so don't miss this brutal yet beautiful play.

Here are some choice excerpts:

“Nottage finds hope for us all in the resilience of a few… Ruined seethes with the brute energy of combat and soars with hard-won compassion and love… Nottage's Pulitzer Prize winner and a dynamic cast make the drama as engrossing as it is thought-provoking… More remarkably, Nottage finds a ray of hope, even joy, for the women and men trapped in this ongoing nightmare. The pain and the glory make an indelible impression in director Liesl Tommy's richly textured staging.” – San Francisco Chronicle 

“Undeniable… Randy Duncan's choreography is explosive. The cast is uniformly riveting. Each actress sensitively delivers her own aria of suffering [and] for her part, Patano captures Mama's gentleness as well as her steel. She's tough enough to suggest a diamond hardened under pressure but soft enough so that the play's rare moments of uplift ring true. Sophie's singing has a transcendent quality that suggests the healing power of art. Christian's mockery of the butchers that plague the land is unexpectedly funny. And an unexpected romance has tearful charm.” – San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group

“Emotionally gripping… The wonder of Ruined emerges in moments of beauty – whether in a song performed by Sophie (backed by musicians Adesoji Odukogbe and Alvin Terry), an athletic dance performed by the male patrons of Mama Nadi’s (choreographed by Randy Duncan) or a flash of brave compassion from a surprising source. In the face of mankind at its worst, there can be sparks of beauty and enlightenment, of fleeting joy amid horror. Those sparks – much like extraordinary pieces of theater – are what we aim for.” – Chad Jones’ Theater Dogs.Net

Photo of Oberon K.A. Adjepong (left) and Tonye Patano in Ruined courtesy of kevinberne.com