Lynn Nottage working on 'Ruined' screenplay for Oprah Winfrey, HBO Films

"Ruined," the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama that recently opened at the Geffen Playhouse after runs in New York, Chicago and Seattle, is getting ready to come to a television screen near you.

A representative for Lynn Nottage said that the playwright is working on a screen adaptation of her stage drama for Harpo Films -- Oprah Winfrey's production company -- and HBO Films. The project is still in its early phases, and no production dates or release dates have been announced, according to the representative.

The news shouldn't come as a surprise to Winfrey fans. The talk-show queen attended a June 2009 performance of "Ruined" at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York and said via Twitter shortly thereafter that the play had made her cry.

Set in a war-torn part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, "Ruined" follows the interactions between the workers of a brothel-bar and some of their male visitors who stop by to drink, chat and more.

"Ruined" is the latest Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play to be picked up by HBO. The premium cable channel has previously produced Tony Kushner's "Angels in America," Margaret Edson's "Wit" and Donald Margulies' "Dinner with Friends."

The Geffen's production of the play is directed by Kate Whoriskey, the artistic director of the Intiman Theatre in Seattle.

On Monday, Nottage was named a recipient of the 2010 "Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award," presented by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.  The honor comes with a cash prize of $200,000.  The award will be presented at a ceremony to be held Nov. 8 in New York.

Nottage is expected to participate in an audience talk-back session at the Geffen Playhouse after the Oct. 5 performance of "Ruined."

-- David Ng

Photo: Lynn Nottage. Credit: Robert Caplin / For The Times

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Comments

[TNA]

I saw this play and I think it's accolades and prizes come from the "white guilt syndrome" show of the year. Over other more deserving plays, its praise often comes from being first to initiate, the mostly guilt ridden and uninformed audience to 3rd World atrocities. Each year there's one. A few years back, "Hotel Rwanda" was such as show, yet paled compared to the later release of the far more gripping "Sometime in April". "Ruined" performs like an outsider's report on a humanitarian crisis. From passages that play like history lessons to moments where characters transform themselves into mouthpieces of the writer's politics, the play alienates me from truly losing myself and empathizing with the actors. Danai Gurira's "Eclipsed", which followed a few months later, in its more visceral and less clunky structure, comes off far more authentic, harrowing and leaving you dry in the mouth. As where Nottage's play feels like you must take notes, Gurira's makes you want to have a seatbelt. Ultimately, the one you emotionally identify with the most leaves the lasting taste.

But an intellectual level, "Eclipsed" characters being fewer, and always in a state of action, are far more complex and believable as Nottage's perhaps from being saddled with too many dramatically inert moments, at it's lowest get reduced to West African caricatures.

It's interesting to note, that Gurira is from Africa, and has seemed to have caught far more idiosyncrasies, behavior, and credible dialogue than Nottage's town cryer or forever proverbial delivery of her ciphers. Granted, "Eclipsed", far from perfect suffered from a some slow moments, but unlike "Ruined" I never once caught myself hearing the writer, that theatrically criminal moment when disbelief, no longer suspends.

[Hoarder]

I would not be at all shocked if one day someone aside from Kitty Kelley exposes Oprah Winfrey for the con artist she pretends she is not. Many televangelists have used charity and good things to rake in millions in the name of "God" and domestication , and after discussing Oprah's tact of using material similar to others while also "changing" the content and her non public or non "transparent" business, hiring ghost writers, then understanding the hidden nature of addicts behavior, as Ms.Winfrey is a former crack head, its safe to see her intent is glorification of persona, in a sophisticated portrayal........ as of course "black" women just do not like being degraded.
Understanding this woman's psychology could be a waste of time however as she is more important to herself then to the millions of people who don't bother in others ego or babble, caring less about other peoples money.