Oscar Winner Lupita Nyong’o Will Lead Danai Gurira's Eclipsed Off-Broadway

Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o will headline the New York premiere of Eclipsed. Directed by Liesl Tommy and penned by Danai Gurira, the production, which has just been added to the Public Theater’s 2015-16 season, will begin off-Broadway previews on September 29. Opening night is set for October 14 at the Public's LuEsther Theater.

Nyong’o will play The Girl. An Oscar winner for her feature debut in 12 Years a Slave, she will next be seen in J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens. She additionally just wrapped production in Uganda on Mira Nair’s The Queen of Katwe opposite David Oyelowo, and lends her voice to Jon Favreau’s upcoming Jungle Book. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama's acting program, Nyongo's stage credits include The Winter's Tale, Uncle Vanya, The Taming of the Shrew and Elijah.

Amid the chaos of the Liberian Civil War, the captive wives of a rebel officer band together to form a fragile community—until the balance of their lives is upset by the arrival of a new girl. Drawing on reserves of wit and compassion, Eclipsed reveals distinct women who must discover their own means of survival in this deeply felt portrait of women finding and testing their own strength in a hostile world of horrors not of their own making.

The limited engagement will run through November 8.