Regional conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa can sputter along for decades. Uncounted thousands of Africans are killed, raped or mutilated while the world’s powers look on.

"Ruined," playwright Lynn Nottage’s 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, focuses on the human cost of decades of low-level conflict in the Congo. Adults and teens who can handle the sexually explicit dialogue will find director Troy M. Apostol’s University of Hawaii Lab Theatre production challenging and provocative.

"Ruined" takes place in and around the bar-brothel run by Mama Nadi (Lillian M. Jones) in a rural mining town. A well-dressed, smooth-talking entrepreneur named Christian (Quantae Love) comes by with women for her establishment. Mama wants only one, Christian wants her to take two; he throws in the second woman for almost nothing.

The first, Salima (Alexis Harvey), was kidnapped by soldiers from one of the various groups fighting in the area and kept as a communal sex slave for five months. The second, Sophie (Denali Lukacinsky), was raped so brutally by another group of men that she is physically "ruined." Mama discovers Sophie can entertain the customers as a singer and help with the bookkeeping.

The area is being fought over by at least two armed groups. One day Mama and her girls are entertaining the rebel forces of Jerome Kisembe (Brandon DiPaola). On another day Commander Osembenga (Q) and his government soldiers are in the house.

Another visitor is a pragmatic Western opportunist, Mr. Harari (Neal Milner), who’ll do business with whichever faction is able to deliver the natural resources he’s looking for.

Jones gives the story a solid foundation and makes Mama a fascinating character. We’re not supposed to like people who make their living managing prostitutes, but Jones’ skill as an actress gets the audience emotionally invested in Mama’s survival.

Love follows his recent performance as the armed ex-slave in The Actors’ Group production of "Resistance!" with equally impressive work here.

Lukacinsky, a new face on the theater scene, is a marvelous find. In her performance is seen the fear, tentative confidence and fragile hope that Sophie experiences. Harvey delivers a passionate monologue during a scene in which Salima recalls the circumstances of her gang rape and its aftermath.

Susan Veney (Josephine) does eye-catching work as one of Mama’s other girls. Veney owns the show in the scene where Josephine recalls her tragic fall from innocence, but her physical presence and visual reactions to other characters make her worth watching even when Josephine is an onlooker.

DiPaola and Q play the rival military commanders as mirror-image psychos. It gradually becomes apparent there is no difference between these murderous groups.

A second theme is even more chilling: What has "civilization" wrought when a woman is safer living in a brothel and being paid for her sexual services than she is out in public where she can be raped with impunity?