Northlight delivers a potent examination of survival

Of all the skills an African woman possesses, the most crucial may be her ability to survive.

Danai Gurira articulates that in painful detail in “Eclipsed,” a convincing, insightful examination of female self-preservation in the midst of nearly continuous civil wars waged for so long they have become the yardstick by which women measure their lives.

The play recalls Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning “Ruined,” which premiered at Goodman Theatre in 2008, and J. Nicole Brooks' “Black Diamond,” which premiered in 2007 at Lookingglass Theatre. Like the others, “Eclipsed” chronicles the horrendous psychological damage that results from the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. But “Eclipsed” — in a candid, potent production directed by Hallie Gordon for Northlight Theatre — is entirely its own.

The play — rooted in moral ambiguity — centers on five women who have perfected the art of survival. They are degraded, yet they endure. They suffer unimaginable physical and psychological brutality, yet they carry on. Their circumstances shift from bad to worse, yet they persist.

Stripped of their names — that last reminder of their former selves — they are identified by a number coinciding with the pecking order established by their captor, a rebel leader known as C.O. (for “commanding officer”), who never appears but whose presence Gurira chillingly conveys with help from lighting designer Charles Cooper.

Set in 2003 Liberia, during the waning days of the country's second civil war, the action unfolds in the compound of a rebel leader fighting against the forces of then-Liberian President Charles Taylor. Against a backdrop of a barricade, topped by razor wire and emblazoned with a peeling, painted-on Liberian flag, stands set designer Jack Magaw's bleakly domestic, crudely appointed cinder-block shed containing a few stray chairs, an overturned tub that doubles as a table and threadbare mattresses covered in colorful blankets. It's home to the commander's “wives,” young Liberian women abducted, raped and forced into sexual slavery. Together they make up a kind of ersatz family whose members live with the ever-present fear the C.O. will summon them.

The oldest, Wife Number One (the latest in a series of frank, engrossing performances by the ever-maturing Alana Arenas), presides with a kind of grudging benevolence over the younger women. They are the very pregnant Wife Number Three (a feisty, charismatic Leslie Ann Sheppard) and a teenage newcomer known as The Girl, played with crystalline intensity by the amazing Paige Collins.

Wife Number Two (a raw, damaged Tamberla Perry) returns after a long absence. She has become a soldier in the rebel army, transforming herself from victim to victimizer in the process. She upsets the balance of this makeshift family when she tries to recruit The Girl into joining her on the front lines. A battle ensues between the pragmatic Number One and the defiant Number Two over the heart and soul of the impressionable girl.

Further complicating matters is the well-intentioned Rita (played with a resigned dignity by Penelope Walker), a humanitarian aid worker trying to broker a cease-fire between the country's warring factions and rescue the women caught in the crossfire.

Gordon's remarkable ensemble fully inhabits Gurira's well-drawn characters in what is an affecting testament to the female spirit and the will to survive.

<b>“Eclipsed”</b>

★★★ ½

<b>Location:</b> Northlight Theatre, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie. (847) 673-6300, <a href="http://www.northlight.org" target="_blank">northlight.org</a>

<b>Showtimes:</b> 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 1 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday through Feb. 20. No 7:30 p.m. show Feb. 1 and 8; no 7 p.m. show Feb. 20

<b>Running time:</b> About two hours, with intermission

<b>Tickets:</b> $30-$50

<b>Parking:</b> Free lot and garage adjacent to the theater

<b>Rating:</b> For adults, includes strong language, violence and sexual content