Direct from Broadway
Following its smash-hit run on Broadway this year, Eclipsed moves to San Francisco's Curran Theatre this Spring for its West Coast Premiere. The Tony Award nominated play taking place during the horrific Liberian civil war will also form part of the 10,000 girls campaign, dedicated to finding the still-missing 218 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted in 2014 by Boko Haram militants.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
Set during the Liberian Civil War of 2003, Eclipsed is the story of a band of captive "wives" of a rebel officer. Facing daily rape and violence at the hands of their abusers, they they have formed an unlikely sisterhood to deal with the violence and struggle all around them. However, their delicate balance is thrown into disarray with the arrival of a new young girl; tensions begin to surface quickly in their neglected corner of the compound, forcing each woman to confront their individual realities, and decide between remaining in the compound, or going out to find to escape the sexual violence.
DID YOU KNOW?
Eclipsed is notably the first work created and staged by an entirely black and female team of director, producers and playwright; Liberian-raised writer Danai Gurira first premiered her work Off-Broadway in 2015 to rave reviews before making the jump to the Great White Way in February 2016.
Inspired by a New York Times photograph of Black Diamond, a female Liberian freedom fighter, she went onto travel to the country in 2007 to interview female survivors of the conflict, providing a traumatic collection of stories that needed to be heard.
