It seems this theatre season keeps getting better. So many surprises and new shows popping up. It was just announced that Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o will make her New York stage debut in a Off-Broadway play entitled Eclipsed at The Public Theater. However, there’s more great news attached to this project. The play is written by Zimbabwean-American playwright Danai Gurira, known for her role as Michonne on AMC’s hit show “The Walking Dead”, and directed by South African born, Obie award winner Liesl Tommy. This sounds like an automatic must see just off the talent alone but just in case you want to know what the play Eclipsed is about:
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.
“A feminist reading of the Liberian Civil War, a war that was ended by women, Eclipsed is both heart-breaking and profoundly life-affirming. We are delighted to welcome the extraordinary Lupita Nyong’o to The Public in this vitally important play,” said artistic director Oskar Eustis. And we’re sure they’re just as thrilled to have Gurira as well, whose earlier works include In the Continuum and The Convert and Tommy who directed The Public’s The Good Negro.
Don’t think Nyong’o is leaving Hollywood though. She has two movies on the horizon that are sure to touch every part of the world. She has a role in Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens and will also lend her voice as a character in Disney’s The Jungle Book.
Previews for Eclipsed are set to begin performances Sept. 29, with an official opening night on Oct. 15. The show will run through Nov. 8. Make sure you check out The Public Theatre website for ticket information.
