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Playwright Lynn Nottage has received numerous awards for her groundbreaking work on the stage, including the MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award. A Brooklyn native, she regularly champions social justice issues in her plays. She was recently awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her play Ruined, a hard-hitting tale of a group of women set in a brothel in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The women flee the ravages of internecine war and the scars of brutal, mutilating rapes. Yet the characters — even the men — offer touching moments of real warmth, all while united by a lilting soundtrack of Congolese music. Ruined will be staged at the Almeida Theatre in London in March 2010.

Nottage spoke with me about her life as an activist, her work as a dramatist, and the power of stories to effect social change.

FTM: How did you become involved with social justice issues?

Nottage: I began my professional life by doing human rights work at Amnesty International. I was a national press officer. On a day-day-basis I was dealing with human rights issues for four years.

FTM: Do you think this affected your understanding of human rights issues or the way you write about human rights issues?

Nottage: I do. It definitely had an impact by osmosis. I was at Amnesty during what I would consider formative years in my development, in my mid-20s. I really do think that what I encountered there and the way that I interfaced with the world impacted how I approach my art and how I approach my life, from then until now.

FTM: Did the research methods that you used at Amnesty carry over into research for your playwriting?

Nottage: I think yes and no. I’m not sure how much you know about Amnesty but they have a rigorous research process. The techniques that I use are a little more relaxed and fluid. I was not looking specifically for details and facts of human rights abuse. I was much more interested in personal narratives and stories of individuals and not just the trauma. The kinds of questions that I asked were very different than if I were going to be writing a human rights article or a newspaper report.

FTM: Were you already interested in drama before your time at Amnesty International?

Nottage: I went to graduate school at the Yale School of Drama before I went to Amnesty, so I began as a playwright and took a detour into human rights work. My first passion was always writing and theatre and the way in which I could tell stories, particularly of marginalized individuals and more specifically women.

FTM: Let’s hone in on Ruined. The play has as an incredible amount of dramatic tension that keeps you engaged, but I was also struck by the music. I know that you wrote the lyrics. How did that artistic choice come about?

Nottage: The nature of the subject matter and the intensity of the situation made me interested in using music to ease the audience into the story and to give them a brief break from the reality of the world. But if you listen to the lyrics very carefully, they also serve as exposition and work in counterpoint to the music, which in many instances is very upbeat, inviting and enticing. Whereas the lyrics that the young women is singing are quite serious and dark.

FTM: The lyrics felt like poetry. In some ways the lyrics almost foreshadowed the–

Nottage: –Yes, it foreshadows. I felt as though it was the one place where I, as the author, could interject a sense of irony and I could say more explicitly what I wanted to say than I did in the play. But people don’t know this because it is camouflaged by music.

FTM: You drew out a sharp contrast between the bright, beautiful music and the potential for violence in the region.

Nottage: I think that’s a great word to describe the music in the Congo, and that’s certainly what I experienced. It has a lightness and brightness and immediately makes you feel buoyant and joyful. We know in many instances the reality on the ground is so dark, especially in the Eastern part of the country. In the African countries that I’ve visited music is so interwoven into a place that it’s hard to describe it without hearing the soundtrack.

FTM: Is that another reason why you included music in the play?

Nottage: Absolutely.

FTM: The topic of rape and your meeting with the rape victims inspired you. Where did you travel?

Nottage: I first went to Uganda and I returned and toured all over east Africa.

FTM: Rape is a difficult topic to take on, yet you dramatized it. Was this piece a dedication to the women that you interviewed?

Nottage: When I was writing Ruined, I was not thinking about dedicating the play to the women but giving them an opportunity to share their stories with the world. I am in a unique position in that I am a playwright who does get produced. I have access to a much larger audience than they do. I felt as though I would amplify the stories that they were telling.

FTM: In the play, you were leading us to believe that the character Sophie might receive corrective surgery as a gift after having been the victim of a brutal, mutilating rape. But the person who is supposed to help her, Mr. Harari, then flees because he thinks he is in danger instead of taking her with him to the city. It was completely surprising to me that Sophie did not have a happy ending. Can you tell us about that creative decision?

Nottage: One of the things that I discovered in the process of writing is that there are all these people who have dreams that will not necessarily be realized. We as audience members want them to have a happy ending but in the Congo it doesn’t always happen that way. Sophie was one of the characters in which I wanted to explore that notion.

FTM: Christian and Mama Naidi, the matron of the brothel, do reach a kind of resolution in dance.

Nottage: With Mama Naidi there is an optimistic ending. Is it a happy ending? I don’t know whether those two will ever find ultimate peace. But I wanted to at least explore what it might be like to reach some sort of resolution and some sort of peace. It was also important for me not to demonize Congolese men in the play. The reality is that it’s only a small fraction of the men in these areas who are sexually violating women. Because of the nature of the situation those are the stories that we hear. It is really important to show that there are men like Christian who are supportive, nurturing, and loving, and who want to form families and relationships with women. That’s why I chose to end the play that way.

FTM: The soldiers were very brutish and prone to violence, but Christian was very sensitive.

Nottage: With Fortune, Salima’s husband, I wanted to show the journey of a man who begins as a farmer and how he is transformed into a monster. That he was a man who would never think of harming a human being. By the end of the play, he is part of the brutality.

FTM: So many of your plays touch on social justice themes. Do you think that using creative stories including plays can make a difference and effect change?

Nottage: I do. Absolutely. Our role as playwrights is to interpret the national narrative and to explore what the mythology of today is. This is very difficult. I do think that, as is the case with Ruined, people can interface with newspaper articles or human rights periodicals and have one sort of clinical response. What I can do as a playwright is paint a portrait of people in three dimensions that allows people to have a very visceral reaction that moves people in a way that a newspaper article won’t. People after seeing Ruined would say, “I’ve read these articles before and I know what’s happening, but now I feel moved to act.” They feel as though they’ve spent two hours with a living, breathing human being with a story that can no longer be ignored.

What I can do as a playwright is paint a portrait of people in three dimensions that allows people to have a very visceral reaction that moves people in a way that a newspaper article won’t. People after seeing Ruined would say, “I’ve read these articles before and I know what’s happening, but now I feel moved to act.” They feel as though they’ve spent two hours with a living, breathing human being with a story that can no longer be ignored.

The stage is a very powerful medium because it’s one of the few mediums where an audience is forced to sit together and have a collective experience. It’s like a living, breathing organism. You’re not just experiencing the play as an individual, but you’re experiencing the play as a group. I think that somehow you absorb the energy of the people sitting next to you. And that’s powerful.

FTM: What action steps can people take to support rape victims in Congo?

There are a few organizations that are doing great work with women. I recommend that people visit Women for Women International and Vday.org.

–Deji Olukotun

For more background about the Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, check out another fascinating book told from the point of view of a rebel soldier, The Rebels Hour, by Lieve Joris, here.

Photo by Susan Johann