Best known for plays like Ruined and Sweat, both of which earned her Pulitzer Prizes for Drama, American playwright Lynn Nottage has written a number of plays to great success. Her work typically deals with the difficulties of the lives of marginalized people; in Poof!, a one-act play, she delves into the psyche of a character who has been the victim of longtime domestic abuse. One day, after years of remaining silent, the demure housewife speaks out against her husband, which causes him to spontaneously combust. The play serves as a kind of parable, or a symbolic tale, for the power of abuse survivors.
Poof! premiered at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in 1993 as part of the Humana Festival of New American Plays. It received positive reviews and was the recipient of the Heideman Award, given to the winner of the National Ten-Minute Play Contest. Many critics pointed to Nottage's brilliant prose and the play's prescient subject matter.
In 2002, a 60-minute adaptation of Poof! was released on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). The cast included Viola Davis and Rosie Perez, and was met with positive reviews.
