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Ruined Critique 2 - Caroline Early

Ruined is a gripping and heart-wrenching drama; it takes a talented cast and crew to deliver to an audience both the light-hearted humor and the fervent passion within the text. The simple set, upbeat music, and talented actors help tell the devastating story of the reality of life in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The set included only the furniture that was necessary to the play. The bar scene showed a bar, a small stage for the band, tables and chairs for the customers, and a birdcage. There were only three wooden benches with cloths thrown over them to look like beds in the bedroom scene. I assume that the simplicity of the set was due to the extremely low budget, however I thought that the plain background allowed me to focus more on the text of what the characters were actually saying. I got a lot out of the drama’s honest portrayal of the life of women in the devastated Democratic Republic of Congo. If the set had been lavish or extravagant, it would have taken away from the raw anguish within the words written by the playwright.

The actors who had lengthy monologues, Salima in particular, did an excellent job with them. I know that it can be a challenge for actors to speak for minutes at a time onstage without losing the audience’s attention. The text of Salima’s monologue was so well written and the actress delivered Salima’s lines with such passion that I heard sniffles in the audience. My attention only grew as I listened to the story of such a sympathetic character. When the actress spoke about the day she was taken from her garden, she reached out and smiled as she remembered trying to touch a peacock. She clenched her fists and furrowed her brow when she wondered why she sent her husband to get an iron pot. She let a tear fall when she spoke of her baby, Beatriz, crying underneath the tree. The emotion and body language that the actress brought to the monologue made it a very powerful scene.

The casting in the show was very well done. The personalities of the actors playing Mama Nadi and Christian played off each other with ease. Elliot Dixon, who played Christian, was constantly goofing off onstage with his dance moves and witty remarks in an attempt to charm Mama Nadi. Adetinpo Thomas, who played Mama Nadi, portrayed her character to have a harsh exterior. However, Christian’s silly behavior highlighted her smiles each time the two were on stage together. There was another pair of characters who played well off of each other: Salima and Josephine. The character Salima, played by Adedolapo Adekunle, seemed to be the complete opposite of Josephine, played by Autumn Reeves. Salima remained in a slumped posture, spoke resentfully about the men she slept with, and appeared awkward and timid around the men. Josephine, however, paraded about the bar in her miniskirt and heels with utmost confidence. Josephine interacted excitedly with many of the men that came into the bar; one man even bought her a dress and made plans to take her to a hotel. The contrast in the characters also shows the different ways a woman can view her life after it is taken from her and she must become a prostitute to remain safe from the war. Josephine takes the horrible situation for what it is and accepts her new life by playing the game of business with the customers and Mama Nadi. She dances and flirts and tries to allure the men. Salima views the soldiers that come into the brothel with hate and disgust. She flirts with the men just enough so she will not anger Mama Nadi and spends every second of her new life resenting the barbaric behavior of men.

The music in the performance was an important part of the play’s success. How the actors behaved while the music was playing often showed a lot about their characters. Sophie sang the lively and upbeat music with such a soft and innocent voice that it seemed like she was trying to escape from the horrors of her life through her music. Haughty and stubborn Josephine would shimmy around the stage and delight in the attention. There were a few times when music was playing while only Christian and Mama Nadi were onstage. She waved off his attempts to dance with her every time until the last scene. Slower music played on the radio and the two held eachother.

I felt very frustrated during the bar scenes when the background characters were whispering to each other because they caused the main dialogue of the scene to be lost. In one particular scene, men and girls were interacting in the background to give the effect of a real bar scene. Meanwhile, Mama Nadi and Christian were the focus of the scene on the right side of the room. However, I was sitting on the front row on the left side of the room, right in front of Salima and a soldier. They were whispering loudly enough that I could hear their conversation and I felt naturally inclined to listen to them rather than Mama Nadi and Christian. When I realized I wasn’t paying attention to Mama Nadi and Christian, I felt frustrated that I had missed their conversation about what was happening in the war.