Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Ruined is a testament to the necessity of intimacy designers like Lana Whittington. We cannot have honest conversations around topics like sex trafficking or abuse without a gentle hand to protect the performers giving that slice of life. If you're going to see a play right now, make it this one."
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"...While I congratulate this company for doing a show of this power at a time when our world is coming out of a pandemic ( hopefully on the right path), the set (Kevin Rolfs) had some confusing sections. When they had the big scene in the second act, part of the sleeping quarters was blocked to 1/3 of the audience. There was also a time when we were IN the bar. But Salima's husband who has been seeking her is standing there ( although, he was outside at the same post before the scene changed) -confusion. It is hard to do big shows in small spaces. In fact, the script has Mama saying that she has 6 girls but we only see three."
Buzznews.net - Highly Recommended
"...Invictus Theatre delivers the finest acting in Chicago. The current run of Lynn Nottage's 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning play 'Ruined' is no exception."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...Ruined is the story of Mama Nadi's bar, which offers drinks and "relief" for the various rebel factions, militias, and mercenaries that fought or profited from the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the '90s. Tekeisha Yelton Hunter is brilliant as the entrepreneurial Mama Nadi. She reigns over the bar and brothel with a glare that goes from flirtatious and amused to machete-wielding and deadly. Mama Nadi's is visited by Christian, a poetic salesman played by Stanley King with tremendous range and subtlety. Christian is the one source of near-normalcy in the midst of the hustlers and brutes who drink Mama Nadi's diluted whiskey. King gives a heart-rending performance as a man who brings two women to Mama Nadi and offers her the bargain of two for one."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...Invictus Theatre doesn't mess around. While many other companies returned from the pandemic shutdown with lighter fair, that absolutely cannot be said about Artistic Director Charles Askenaizer and the group he oversees. Performing at the Reginald Vaughn Theatre (formerly The Frontier), Invictus and Askenaizer immediately challenged players and audiences alike with Hamlet, only to follow up with Lynn Nottage's searing Ruined. (It won't get any easier, either. Later this year, the company will present Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) The great news is that Askenaizer and Invictus have the chops to pull these heavy plays off."
Splash Magazine - Recommended
"...There is excellent chemistry amongst the cast. The actors' energy and commitment to their characters were notable, especially those of Tekeisha Yelton-Hunter (Mama Nadi), Stanley King (Christian), Courtney Gardner (Salima), and ensemble member Kejuan Darby."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...For all the trouble "Ruined" so powerfully captures, it also gives us the human capacity for tenderness in the face of anarchy and hellish violence. Is that an ending fitting a play about the human toll of Congo wars? The play, which Nottage originally workshopped at the Goodman Theatre in 2007, is based on the author's reporting in Uganda among refugees from the conflicts. In their stories, she found the horrible and the good, and how, like the precious words of the bird in the bar, the remnants of the culture that are nearly lost for good, are the most dear of all. The Invictus Theatre Co.'s fine production, as relevant now as ever, is also a treasure to hold on to."
