[1] Directed by Kate Whoriskey, the cast featured Shane Williams (Esther), Brenda Pressley (Mrs. Dickson), Kevin Jackson (George Armstrong) Sue Cremin (Mrs. VanBuren) and Erica Gimpel (Mayme) .
By way of a mutual acquaintance, she begins to receive beautiful letters from a lonesome Caribbean man named George Armstrong who is working on the Panama Canal.
Deeply wounded by the betrayal, but somehow unbroken, Esther returns to the boarding house determined to use her gifted hands and her sewing machine to refashion her dreams and make them anew from the whole cloth of her life's experiences.
"[3] The reviewer for The New York Times of a 2010 production at the Two River Theatre Company (Red Bank, New Jersey), wrote: "If you’ve seen Ms. Nottage’s 'Ruined,' about Congolese women in wartime,... no introduction is necessary.
The Two River production, expertly directed by Seret Scott, shows off its multiple facets: a rich, vivid portrait of turn-of-the-last-century New York; a feminist lament of intelligent, talented women defined and controlled by men; a soft-focus glimpse into the beating hearts behind the archives of African-American life a century ago.
[14] An operatic adaptation of the play with a libretto by Lynn Nottage, music by Ricky Ian Gordon, and direction by Bartlett Sher began Off-Broadway previews February 27, 2020.