June, 2010
Under 26 - Fancy a free trip to the theatre?
PRECIOUS loves this new scheme from Arts Council England. Launched in February
2009, A Night Less Ordinary (ANLO) is an initiative that aims
to encourage
more young
people to
attend live theatre. ANLO are giving away more than half of a million free
theatre tickets (until March 2011) to anyone under 26 to enable them to
experience all sorts of theatre events including comedy, tragedies, musical
theatre, dance, modern mime, plays, circus and much more.
It's pretty easy to get your hands on a ticket, as ANLO has signed up more than 200 venues throughout England onto the scheme. To book a free ticket all you have to do is visit the ANLO homepage, enter a location, postcode or region, find a participating theatre, have a look at what's on offer and job done!
Ruined @The Almeida, London
By P J Cobham
A
small war-torn mining town in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the backdrop
to Lynn Nottage's play. The story opens with Sophie (Pippa Bennett-Warner) and farmers’ wife Salima (Michelle Asante), two women broken by war. Inhumanly passed around by the soldiers
for their amusement and branded as “Ruined” and in the case of Salima,
shunned as being an embarrassment and unworthy, they feel that they can
no longer live within their villages. The only option the two women have
is Mama Nadi’s joint.
The fearless and omnipresent Mama Nadi (Jenny Jules) owns the local bar cum brothel.. There is nothing she doesn’t know or can’t find out. Mama Nadi runs a tight ship, relishing her business acumen as she struts around her bar. Government troops and rebel militia beat down her door with requests for the ‘flesh’. “So many men have had you, you are worthless” she laments to one of the women whom she reluctantly gives shelter, but by giving these “Ruined” women sanctuar,y she risks her own profiteering livelihood.
As the story unfolds there is music, wit and revelry but doom lurks. Salima’s husband (David Ajala) is convinced his wife is at Mama Nadi’s and subsequently begins stalking the place. Soldiers come and go, once “serviced” as war rages. Commander Osembenga (Steve Toussaint) is feared by Mama Nadi’s inhabitants and customers and you quickly realise he has some questionable sexual habits which breeds fear into the women and to some extent Mama Nadi.
Held together by some inventive staging; Robert Jones’ corrugated tin revolving stage with its authentic dressing, Oliver Fenwick’s atmospheric and eerie lighting, live music throughout by Dominic Kanza and played by (Pippa Bennett-Warner, Joseph Roberts & Damola Adelaja) and a wonderful supporting cast including 'head prostitute' Josephine played beguilingly by the statuesque Kehinde Fadipe, and Lucien Msamati (The No:1 Ladies Detective Agency) is delightful as the soft-hearted humorous trader who you sense has a little soft spot for the tempestuous Madam.
But it is the consistently brilliant Jenny Jules that drives this play in all its glory. Her mannerisms are sublimely glorious and her expressive intonations glide over every scene. With solid direction by Indhu Rubasingham, Nottage’s deeply disturbing tale of the suffering inflicted on women in war torn countries, the hypocrisy of husbands who disassociate themselves from their defiled wives and the role of governments who seem to turn a blind eye to war crimes perpetrated by and on their own people is a testament to Nottage’s skill at storytelling. The ending (there is a twist) gives you the sense that whatever life throws at these women, the human spirit continues to endure.
A must see!
4 out of 5
Tickets: 0207 359 4404 Until 5 June 2010
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