"Ruined" was written after a pilgrimage through Africa, where the author conducted countless interviews on a Ugandan refugee camp that sheltered Congolese women. This interaction gave rise to a portrait of women trapped in a devastating on-going tragedy. The setting is a brothel-bar in the rain forest of war-ridden Democratic Republic of Congo. The shrewd matriarch and owner of the place - Mama Nadi - protects and profits from the bodies of women that became a battlefield between governmental soldiers and rebel forces.

The play won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009.