NEW YORK, Oct. 20 (UPI) — Lupita Nyong’o is headed to Broadway on the shirttails of her debut play Eclipsed as one of the forced wives of a rebel officer in early 21st Century Liberia.
Announced Tuesday, the play’s Broadway bow will take place in February, several months after it closes at the Public Theater in November. Eclipsed, written by Danai Gurira, is the second play to cover rape as a war tactic in Africa in seven years, after Lynn Nottage’s Ruined earned a Pulitzer Prize.
“Broadway will be better for having Eclipsed on it, and I hope it will break a barrier that will stay broken, if it proves that shows like this can make it on Broadway,” said Public Theater art director Oskar Eustis to the New York Times.
Eclipsed, directed by Liesl Tommy, made its off-Broadway debut during late September previews and will last for an extremely limited engagement ending Nov. 8. Actress Nyong’o, known for her roles in 12 Years a Slave and the upcoming Star Wars film, plays “The Girl,” in the new play, which Eustis described as, “a feminist reading of the Liberian Civil War, a war that was ended by women.”
Gurira, also an actress who is well-known for her role as Michonee in The Walking Dead, enters the handful of woman writers who have seen the play progress to Broadway. Only one other playwright — Britain’s Helen Edmunson — has been selected for the prestigious slot this season for Therese Raquin.
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