John Lyly had it right. "The rules of fair play do not apply in love and war," said he. "Ruined," Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, echoes that sentiment more than 400 years later. Wars are not reasonable; love cannot be rational.
La Jolla Playhouse's current production of Nottage's drama, which elucidates and castigates the wars of the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), is not truly fair, either. The subject is worthy and important, and the stories of those who inhabit it deserve illumination. Nevertheless, this play, as staged and presented, is not the thing that brings it all home.
Considering these times and the relevance of war's effects on those who had no willing part in it, it should. Blame a dragging (70-minute) first act with a mostly inexperienced cast for the lack of impact. Director Liesl Tommy shares culpability for a lack of tight direction and the inappropriate ennui. The script asks a lot of the actors, demanding they translate atrocities without melodrama. It is equally challenging for the audience, which must surrender early expectations of significant action. Nevertheless, the story triumphs in the end for the lessons it shares about love and war and those who live with, and through, both.
As the playwright has said, "(women's) bodies had become battlefields." Yet, the story is not a docudrama as much as it is a parable. It is a story tinged with humor and hope, and in those virtues lie its rewards.
Set (intricately and believably by scenic designer Clint Ramos) in a Congolese jungle bar-brothel where both the rebel and the government armies can enjoy drink, dancing and women, the contemporary tale focuses on the real people, drawn unwillingly into a political stag fight not of their making.
Opening with banters between a traveling salesman, Christian (played as benevolent fool by Oberon K.A. Adjepong) and the bar's indomitable owner, Mama Nadi (a forceful Tonye Patano), the first scene brings on the two traumatized refugee girls whom Christian rescued from certain starvation after their villages and families turned them out. Raped and "ruined," the limping Salima (a melodramatic Pascale Armand) and her comely friend Sophie (a composed Carla Duren) become part of Mama's family of prostitutes. They join the veteran Josephine (played with convulsive abandon by Zainab Jah) in forming the ersatz-win-not losing-as-badly situational complexity of a society forced by atrocious circumstance into survival mode. Mama profits, and her girls are protected.
We get it. In the first 20 minutes. So, what is with the following 50? The girls talk of missing their homes and families. Mama talks about her desires for continued independence. Salima's husband Simon (an anxious Okieriete Onaodowan) comes for her, talks loudly about capturing her, but stands in the rain rather than making a decisive move. The story deserves more action and less talk-talk.
However, in the much livelier Act 2, the armies are waging atrocities on women and children as they take turns popping into Mama's place for some cheering up (which involves drunken brawling, dancing and raping). Here is the rub and the irony. Mama profits, but mostly from those who commit the war crimes. She takes from the evil (the commandoes) and gives to the poor (her girls). Mr. Harari (an uncertain Joseph Kamal) is the more stereotypical profiteer, taking from anyone to boost his own depository. His success balances on his opportunistic skills.
Like the comparable Mother Courage, Mama balances on a tightrope barrier of luck, which depends on the two armies never being in her place at the same time and on those whom she trusts not to betray her. Ah, Switzerland, she is not. Neutrality is an illusion. The inevitable occurs. The war will come to all, and the results are classic.
An innocent is sacrificed. The armies converge, and lives are jeopardized. The trustee proves cowardly. But classic is not the same as simple, thanks to a redeeming and heartrending set of secrets and circumstances. Credit is equally due to Adjepong's emancipated acting that conveys the authentic Christian lacking in Act 1 and Patano's dexterous management of Mama's transformation.
It has become obvious that Mama cannot remain alone against the terrors of her world. Yet, she must give up something most precious to gain the possibility that love holds out to her. The girls are not as ruined as fate dictated, for life goes on and hope sparks a bit of music in the darkness.
No, Mr. Lyly, not all is fair. Yet, even in life's most horrendous and malevolent situations there exists the potential for rightfulness.
"Ruined" by Lynn Nottage plays on the Mandell Weiss Theatre stage at LaJolla Playhouse through December 19. Performances are: Tues/Weds at 7:30 pm; Thu-Sat at 8:00 pm; Sun at 7:00 pm. Matinees on Sat & Sun at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $31-$66, available at the Playhouse Box Office (858) 550-1010 or online at LaJollaPlayhouse.org.
