Surely Nottage must have been expecting a call at exactly 3PM on April 20. “You know, there had been some hype, but in the words of Public Enemy, ‘Don’t believe the hype.’ So I hadn’t invested in [winning]. I really hadn’t. Because you don’t imagine that these things are going to happen. I firmly believe that if I gave power to the award, I would diminish the power of the play—and I feel like the play stands with or without [a Pulitzer].”
Indeed it does: Ruined drew some of the season’s best reviews for its depiction of life inside a bar in war-torn Congo. [For more on the play and Manhattan Theatre Club’s current off-Broadway production, click here].
Once the news was official, Nottage says, “I was super excited. I popped open a bottle of Dom Perignon that I had been keeping for six years, and I drank a glass of it only to discover that it had turned. But I still drank it. I kid you not!”
Pundits had predicted that the only thing that might tip the award away from Ruined is the Pulitzer board’s stated preference for a play “dealing with American life.” Says Nottage, “Here’s my spin on it, that this is a play about American themes. Because the war in the Congo is essentially being fought to sustain our lifestyle. We live in a global society, and I don’t think we can talk about quote unquote ‘American themes’ anymore."
As for the challenge of taking a real-life political situation and transforming it into a compelling play, Nottage says, “It was tough. I think that’s why it took so long, because I didn’t want to write a play about war that would turn people off. I wanted people to get to know these characters, and feel for these characters, so that when they left they’d feel compelled to act. That meant figuring out a way to find a balance.”
Nottage has nothing but praise for Kate Whoriskey’s off-Broadway production, which began at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre before opening on February 10 at MTC. “I have a phenomenal director. I have an absolutely amazing, dedicated, generous cast. And I think those two things are rare.”
But what of Broadway? Is it bittersweet that Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play is not running on the Great White Way? “Is it bittersweet?” she muses, pausing for a moment before taking yet another congratulatory call. “I would love to have the play on Broadway, but I always feel that it’s a bonus just to have a play produced.”