They sleep on thin blankets, subsist on erratic arrivals of food and are regularly called to bed by the “C.O.,” as they refer to the rebel leader, who remains unseen. When he approaches the door of their dwelling, fear and anxiety leap into their eyes as they jump to attention, lined up like soldiers, awaiting his choice for sexual service.

Helena (Saycon Sengbloh) is the oldest at 25, and has been held in sexual slavery for at least a decade. She’s denoted as “Wife No. 1,” or just “No. 1.” Throughout the play the four central characters refer to one another, and themselves, only by their captor’s designation, a powerful symbol of their dehumanization, and an indication of how deeply a sense of self-alienation has set in.

When Rita (Akosua Busia), a member of a respected women’s council working to end the bloodletting, visits their compound, she asks them pointedly what their names are; they are hesitant to answer, perhaps unable to face the recollection of their former lives, now so impossibly distant.

As the play begins, Helena and Bessie (Pascale Armand), the pregnant third “wife,” are attempting to keep secret the presence of a young girl, played by Ms. Nyong’o, who has wandered into the camp after fleeing violence in her village. She sleeps under a rubber tub, but when she steps outside she is discovered by the C.O. and immediately raped, becoming another piece of human chattel.