Eclipsed
Playwright: Danai Gurira. At: Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie, Skokie. Phone: 847-673-6300; $30-$50. Runs through: Feb. 20
In Darfur
Playwright: Winter Miller. At: TimeLine Theatre Company, 615 W. Wellington. Phone: 773-281-8463; $28-$38. Runs through: March 20
Two Chicago-area theater companies are shining uncomfortable spotlights on the horrific treatment of women caught up in the middle two African nations' crises.
Northlight Theatre in Skokie looks at the lives of four "wives" in a rebel leader's compound during the Liberian Civil War of the past decade in the regional premiere of Danai Gurira's Eclipsed, while TimeLine Theatre offers the Chicago premiere of Winter Miller's drama In Darfur which shows the struggle to get news out about ethnic genocide in Sudan.
Eclipsed seems less interested in strong narrative plot and more focused on the difficult choices women must make if they hope to survive in a war. The choice to become another "wife" to a rebel leader or to take up arms as a child soldier is what faces The Girl, well-played by Paige Collins first with wide-eyed innocence then churning anger.
As a young teenager with more schooling than the head wife Helena (Alana Arenas) and pregnant wife No. 3 Bessie (Leslie Ann Sheppard), The Girl also sees the power and freedom that wife No. 2 Maima (Tamberla Perry) wields as a heartless guerrilla soldier. There's also peace negotiator Rita (Penelope Walker), who also has an ulterior motive to find her kidnapped daughter.
Director Hallie Gordon is great at getting the women's personalities to shine throughout, which is helpful since Gurira's play is focused so heavily on the women's day-to-day actions instead of producing a satisfying overarching conflict.
Much more dramatically compact and unsettling is In Darfur, which receives a powerful and high-tech multimedia TimeLine Theatre staging by director Nick Bowling. Though playwright Miller deals with ethnic cleansing in the Sudan, she makes the drama about the diverging agendas of its characters who are trying to do some good amid such chaos.
Raped and left for dead by government-back militias, Darfuri English teacher Hawa (a soulful Mildred Marie Langford) journeys to an aid organization hospital where she is told by the Argentine-American doctor Carlos (Gregory Isaac) that she is pregnant.
Into the mix comes New York Times reporter Maryka (Kelli Simpkins), who spars with her editor Jan (Tyla Abercrumbie) in her efforts to find the perfect source to get the story out to the world.
What follows is a battle of wills between many of these key players as they weigh their agendas and actions into what could be disastrous life and death decisions. Miller adroitly stirs up audience outrage and sympathy in equal measures, making In Darfur a harrowing and important global drama of our time.
Some people might shy away from these difficult plays. But they're both outstandingly realized and compelling in their own ways, and hopefully empathetically eye-opening as well.