ECLIPSED (Liberian Play with an all female cast)

"ECLIPSED"
A chilling, humanizing and surprisingly funny portrait of transformation and renewal.
By Danai Gurira (In The Continuum, The Visitor)


WORLD PREMIERE @ The Kirk Douglas Theatre
Culver City, Ca
SEPTEMBER 13-OCTOBER 18, 2009
A story of war torn Liberia is a compelling and exhilarating new work that explores the strength of women caught in the crossfire of war. The “wives” of a rebel commanding officer form an unlikely community in the hostile battle zone. Their world is transformed by the arrival of two newcomers and the return of a former “wife” turned rebel soldier. How does each woman survive during a vicious conflict fought primarily by boys and men? Eclipsed celebrates women who navigate the most brutal of circumstances.



FOR MORE INFORMATION on groups of 10 or more:
CONTACT- Nadjah Dabney @ 213-972-7231 or ndabney@centertheatregroup.org

THEATER: Liberia 'Eclipsed' by all-female cast



Media Room: DVD & Blu-ray reviews
By Jayne Blanchard

An all-female cast in a play that's not about menopause or private
parts is an event in itself. That Danai Gurira's world-premiere drama
"Eclipsed" features striking women characters committing fierce acts of
heroism in the midst of war is a cause for celebration.

Woolly Mammoth's production, directed by South African native Liesl
Tommy, is about as good as it gets. The acting is astonishing, the set
design by Daniel Ettinger a spooky and unsettling rendering of the
African bush, and Veronika Vorel contributes an evocative aural collage
of Afro-pop and battle sounds.

Miss Gurira is familiar to D.C. audiences as one-half of the
acting-writing duo (along with Nikkole Salter) who appeared at Woolly
in "In the Continuum" in 2006 and also for her role in the popular
indie movie "The Visitor." Intrigued by a photo of female Liberian
rebel fighters toting AK-47s while wearing fashionable jeans and tops
and in full hair and makeup, she traveled to Liberia to interview
survivors of rape and kidnapping as well as soldiers and aid workers.
(By the way, after many years of civil war and genocide, Liberia now
has Africa's first female president, a change brought about largely
through the efforts of female peace workers who advocated for stability
at great risk to their lives.)

"Eclipsed" sheds light on five women, three of whom are the abducted
wives of a Liberian rebel commander. As in the hierarchy of a wealthy
Chinese family, the women are known first only by their ranking. No. 1
Wife (Uzo Aduba) is the oldest and has been in the compound the
longest. She rules the pregnant No. 3 Wife (Liz Femi Wilson) and
newcomer No. 4 Wife (Ayesha Ngaujah) with an iron fist, and there is
plenty of rivalry and squabbling among the three. Yet the play's
warmest and most affecting scenes show the women engaging in
domesticity amid sexual abuse and squalor: fixing one another's hair,
listening to No. 4 read from a biography of Bill Clinton and idly
chatting while preparing food.

No. 2 Wife (Jessica Frances Dukes) has fled the compound to become a
ferocious, glamorous rebel soldier. She recruits No. 4 into the army --
and into the banality of violence, to harrowing effect. Their lives are
further shaken when a peace worker, Rita (Dawn Ursula), arrives at the
compound. She urges the women to look ahead to a future without war and
to the past -- in particular, using the names their parents gave them
-- that links them to who they really are.

The acting is so strong you almost forget some of the inadequacies of
the script, especially with the character of Rita, who seems more of a
symbol or figurehead than a woman. Miss Dukes is a revelation as the
warrior Maima -- a strutting, glittering amazon whose power lies in her
refusal to bend and her resolute reinvention of herself. Miss Ngaujah,
as her pupil, is achingly effective as a lost young girl easily lead by
others. The patriarch, Helena, is beautifully played by Miss Aduba as a
person whose identity has been quietly eroded away by years of drudgery
and maltreatment, a contrast to Miss Wilson's portrayal of wife Bessie
as a firecracker of attitude, entitlement and sputtery energy.

"Eclipsed" illuminates the darkness of the women's plights, but it also
reveals the light within them that stubbornly refuses to die out.

RATING: *** 1/2

WHAT: "Eclipsed," by Danai Gurira

WHERE: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D St. NW

WHEN: 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through Sept. 27.

TICKETS: $27 to $62

PHONE: 202/393-3939

WEB SITE: http://www.woollymammoth.net

MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS