From the moment cigarette-and-condoms salesman Christian (Stanley Wayne Mathis) drags scared Salima (Stephanie Weeks) and cringing Sophia (Bianca Sams) into Mama Nadi's multicolored cantina, it's destined to become another stage in the Congolese wars between factions of oppressors and rebels. Very hard to tell which is which: they constantly fluctuate.
All sides victimize civilians. Mama (Alice M. Gatling), who provides R & R for soldiers she makes check politics and guns at the lush tropical forest's edge, risks being unable not only to thrive but to survive.
Because few women escape being "ruined" -- that is, shunned by their families for being systematically raped and often having genitals mutilated (as Sophia has), Mama's is a beneficient brothel. Gals like flirty yet haughty Josephine (Ashley Bryant) can choose their customers and save for another life. She, in fact, plans to go off one day soon with Mr. Hatari (Ron Siebert), a white gem trader.
It takes a lot of Christian's persuading, along with no charge for Sophia and a gift of the Belgian chocolates Mama craves, to get her to take in the ruined girl, who's his niece. Of what use will she be?
After Mama relents, Sophia entertains by singing and, being more educated, she keeps the books. Though Mama gets exasperated with her for filling her and the others' heads with romantic novels' dreams, she stops short of throwing Sophia out when she learns she is skimming profits. Why such seeming compassion?
Salima, pregnant by a rapist, learns her husband Fortune (Khalil Muhammad), full of remorse for being away when she was abducted, is seeking her. She's on the brink of despair. Meanwhile a "general" Osembenga (Lawrence Evans) with threatening ways visits Mama's and demeans Christian.
Tension is thick, yet author Lynn Nottage provides positive undercurrents throughout her drama. Her most resilient character, of course, is Mama, and she could not be embodied better than by Alice Gatling. The heroic anti-heroine even manages to weather the sentimentality that mars Nottage's achievement a bit when the playwright strays from her beginning Brechtian mode.
Gatling's outstanding portrayal is all the more remarkable in the midst of so much merit gained by the rest of the cast. Mathis' Christian, winning from the start, gets only more positive.
As Osembenga, Evans terrifies in even his calmest moments, while just the opposite holds true for Muhammad's Fortune. Ron Siebert makes Harari calculating under his outer blandness.
Each of the canteen's women "workers" is distinct. Stephanie Weeks projects strongly the conflict going on inside Salima, yet surprises later. Though she could evidence more talent as a singer, Bianca Sams catches Sophie's pride and romantic aspirations. The most consistently commanding presence among the three belongs to Ashley Bryant's Josephine.
With his characteristic sure hand, director Richard Hopkins makes so many things happen powerfully that FST's mainstage seems much grander than it is. Of help and importance are Bob Phillips' colorful set, Micheal Foster's changing lighting, and Nichole Wee's creative ethnic and other site-right costumes.
Nice touches include having the same actors playing opposing soldiers in different scenes. There's definitely welcome comic relief in ways Mama tries to accommodate whatever side or whoever else holds power. With guitar and percussion, musicians aptly present Nottage's songs.
"Ruined" Congo is a hell of a place to be, but the play in FST's production is a hell of a good one to see.
