Lynn Nottage’s play Ruined won the Pulitzer prize and several Best Play awards in New York when it premiered there in 2009.

Ruined is set in a small mining town deep in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Mama Nadi’s bar her rules apply. No arguments, no politics, no guns. When two new girls tainted with the stigma of their recent past arrive, Mama is forced to reassess her business priorities and personal loyalties. As tales of local atrocities spread and tensions between rebels and government militia rise, the realities of life in civil war provide the ultimate test of the human spirit.

Ruined stars Jenny Jules, an Almeida theatre regular whose previous work for the venue includes The Homecoming and Big White Fog.

American playwright Nottage is also the author of Intimate Apparel, A Walk Through Time, Crumbs From The Table Of Joy and Fabulation, which was produced at the Tricycle theatre, directed by Indhu Rubasingham, who also directs Ruined.

For more about Ruined at the Almeida theatre read the First Night Feature or the Big Interview with Lucian Msamati.