The cast of The Huntington’s production of Mfoniso Udofia’s The Grove, directed by Awoye Timpo; photo by Marc J. Franklin.

Play two of the Ufot Family Cycle
Presented by The Huntington
Written By Mfoniso Udofia
Directed by Awoye Timpo

February 7 – March 9, 2025
The Huntington Calderwood
527 Tremont St. 
Boston, MA 02116

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — The Grove is a play about being female, queer, and Black in a world that derides persons who persist in those identities. It follows Adiaha Ufot (Abigail C Onwunali returning in a tour de force performance) as she bargains with herself, her Ancestors, and her family to justify her existence. This is the triumphant second play in the Ufot Family Cycle by Mfoniso Udofia which runs at the Calderwood Pavilion in Boston through March 9. 

If you didn’t see Sojourners, the first play in the Ufot Family Cycle, here is a recap video graciously provided by The Huntington.

Attendees won’t need to have seen Sojourners to enjoy The Grove as The Grove stands on its own dramatic, design, and direction excellence, but knowing about Sojourners will help patrons understand the trajectories of the recurring Nigerian-American characters Abasiama (Patrice Johnson Chevannes who leads with quiet bravery) and Disciple’s (Joshua Olumide as the terrifyingly unhinged patriarch). Both have changed since we last met them: Abasiama has found success in STEM after earning her college degree and born three more children. Disciple is an adjunct professor who now displays obsessive narcissistic personality traits: sleep deprivation, financial abuse, gaslighting. Their home is a veritable warzone for their children Adiaha, Toyoima (Aisha Wura Akorede) and Ekong (Amani Kojo).

The Grove begins on a day of celebration for Adiaha in Worcester, MA. The opening scene shows us how the Ufot family must negotiate joy in an anxious household. It is 2009, and she has graduated at the top of her class from New York University with a degree in creative writing. Her father is throwing a party to celebrate her success with his best friends in attendance. Adiaha, her siblings and her mother are cleaning for guests (Paul-Robert Pryce, Maduka Steady, Chibuba Bloom Osuala) as her father “supervises.” They pretend happiness for friends and suppress their insecurities when they are alone. It is not the home Abasiama yearned for in Sojourners, but it is the one she has. 

Adiaha carries two secrets: a new creative piece is burrowing its way out of her despite her great artistic restraint in her childhood home; and, she is in love with her childhood friend Kimberly (Valyn Lyric Turner). Her family tells Adiaha who she must be; Kim reminds Adiaha of who she is. The weight of her secrets, the lies she tells her loved ones, and society’s expectations threaten to bury her deep into the ground. It is only the chants of her African Ancestors in her mind (Shadows: Ekemini Ekpo, Janelle Grace, Patrice Jean-Baptiste, Chibuba Bloom Osualam, and local favorite Dayenne Walters) that prevent Adiaha from falling apart at the party and in her apartment in New York. We watch Adiaha try to keep the peace while the Ancestors whisper what is possible and what has always been.   

The Grove is overwhelming. It is great art. It is overwhelmingly great art. We left the theatre on Saturday afternoon brimming with strong emotion. The Grove taps into what it means to be a queer artist reconciling who they are with where they come from and all of the social expectations that don’t intersect. Many families refuse admissions of queerness like Adiaha’s. Adiaha’s family accepts her accolades as a scholar but doesn’t respect the work she does as an artist. These are messages young and mature artists can connect with.  

This production retained many of its designers from Sojourners. We can see this in many of the design elements of the production and especially in the expansion of scenic designer Jason Ardizzone-West’s set which used spiderwebbed metal rods to intersect the set for Sojourners. In The Grove, his design incorporates metal rods that trail off the stage and into the audience. These rods resemble the bamboo that grows in Nigeria. They also look like prison bars keeping Adiaha from parts of herself and from her Ancestors who prowl between them. The bars become sharpened staffs the Ancestors use in battle.   

Voice and dialect coach Dawn-Elin Fraser elevates the work she did on Sojourners. Abasiama and Disciple now have faint traces of a Massachusetts accent in their Ibibio. They have been in the U.S. for decades and they can’t help but pick up local inflections. The Ibibio flows naturally in the English dialogue. Director Awoye Timpo’s staging and the actors’ physicalities give us everything we need to know about the Ibibio-only dialogue. English-only patrons should let the spoken Ibibio flow over them like music.

The playbill includes dramaturgy by Donnetta Lavinia Grays and Charles Haugland. There are informative interviews with the design and other creative crew members on costuming design and language work. I will note that I ran into this 2024 CNN article by reporters Adie Vaness Offiong and Ian Wafula as part of my own dramaturgy for this article. In it, Offiong and Wafula report from Lagos, Nigeria on a practice called “kito,” the catfishing and sexual assault of queer and nonbinary persons to forcefully convert them to heterosexuality. The article is graphic because the practice is cruel. 

Nigeria is factually unsafe for its queer population and women (thanks especially to colonialism). As the sitting President does his utmost best to eradicate protections for LGBTQIA+ individuals, the U.S. is becoming more unsafe, not less. More instances of violence against the queer community are being brought to light and the LGBTQIA+ community is rightfully scared. Let The Grove show you how not to respond to a loved one’s coming out story.

Queer and trans people have always existed. We will continue to exist. Hate won’t prevent us from existing. Let The Grove’s themes and scenes be a lesson to its audiences; Let love and acceptance be a sharpened tool that guides us through the next four years. 
The Grove mini-doc

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