Mfoniso Udofi’s Ufot Family Cycle continues with ‘The Grove’

Second in series of nine plays

Susan Saccoccia

A recipient of NEA Arts Journalism fellowships in dance, theater and music, Susan reviews visual and performing arts in the U.S. and overseas.

... VIEW BIO

Banner Arts & Culture Sponsored by Cruz Companies

A cluster of shimmering silver poles evokes the stand of trees where ancestors and living family members meet in “The Grove,” on stage at the Calderwood Pavilion of the Boston Center for the Arts through March 9 in a world premiere production by the Huntington Theater Company.

With staging as poetic as the play by Nigerian American playwright Mfoniso Udofi, the Huntington production is directed by Awoye Timpo, with scenic design by Jason Ardizzone-West, costumes by Sarita Fellows, lighting by Reza Behjat and cast members who embody their roles with conviction. 

“The Grove” is the second work in Udofia’s nine-play “Ufot Family Cycle,” now being presented for the first time in its entirety by the Huntington and partners throughout Greater Boston. The series began in November with Huntington’s production of “Sojourners,” the cycle’s first play, and will conclude with its ninth play, a folk opera, in the summer of 2026.

Raised in Southbridge, Udofia attended Wellesley College where she discovered August Wilson’s 10-play “Century Cycle,” which follows a family descended from slaves as they make their way in 20th century Pittsburgh. Udofia’s cycle focuses on three generations of an aspiring Nigerian American family.

Set in 1978, “Sojourners” introduces Abasiama, pregnant and in Houston with her husband. They plan to earn higher education degrees and return home to Nigeria. But after Abasiama gives birth, her husband leaves for Nigeria with their infant daughter and she finds a new partner, Disciple.   

Neither “Sojourners” nor “The Grove” account for how Abasiama could give up her newborn to a husband she no longer wanted, why she stayed behind and why with Disciple, who takes over with almost brutish fervor.

The cast of the Huntington’s production of “The Grove” PHOTO: MARC J. FRANKLIN

Perhaps there will be answers in “runboyrun,” the cycle’s third work, to be presented as a free audioplay on March 13 and 14, or in its fourth play, “Her Portmanteau” to be staged at Central Square Theatre from March 27 through April 20.

Unfolding in 2009, “The Grove” finds Abasiama and Disciple raising a family in Worcester. They are preparing a party to honor Adiaha, their eldest daughter, who after graduating from Amherst at the top of her class has just earned a master’s degree in creating writing from New York University.

In “The Grove,” the intertwining of past and present animates its story of Adiaha, her family and a people. Scenes among the living shift in a rotating turntable of settings that include the Ufot living room; the bedroom Adiaha flees to for prayer and relief; and the apartment she shares with Kimberly, an African American artist. Observing Adiah are the Shadows, a chorus of five female ancestors attired in traditional head and body wraps whose comments grow from clucks and murmurs into arias of Ibibio, a rhythmic, musical language of Nigeria.

Abigail C. Onwunali, a memorable Abasiama in “Sojourners,” is the weary-looking Adiaha, who summons a forced smile on demand. Adiaha is anguished because she is gay and believes that her Nigerian ancestry forbids homosexual love. She has hidden her longstanding love affair with Kimberly from her family. Valyn Lyric Turner’s Kimberly is a charismatic and compassionate presence. Attired in a pastel scarf as she unveils her pastel portrait of Adiaha, Kimberly seems like an extension of her painting. 

Patrice Johnson Chevannes is an urbane Abasiama, a research scientist who as a mother and wife speaks softly but holds her own. Reprising his “Sojourners” role, Joshua Olumide is Disciple, the Ufot family patriarch, who is given to pulverizing rants and regards his adjunct professor post as beneath him. Aisha Wura Akorede is a natural as Toyoima, Adiaha’s edgy and aware younger sister. And Amani Kojo as her lanky teenage brother, Ekong, is refreshingly self-assured despite family tensions.

Wearing traditional garb and brandishing a staff is Maduka Steady’s convincingly staunch Godwin, visiting from Texas to celebrate Adiaha’s graduation. He and Disciple switch between liltingly accented English and Ibidio as they expound on Nigeria’s problems.

Oases of humor spring from watching Ekong as well as the cool ease of Paul-Robert Pryce’s Udosen, another old friend, who tells Adiaha, “As your favorite uncle, I implore you to continue finding your own two feet.”

Eventually, Adiaha does just that.

In the play’s increasingly thin boundary between the living and their ancestors, the Shadows step out into the light as Adiaha summons her loved ones and says, “And so, now let me tell you my story—the story of me.”