The Grove

By Mfonsio Udofia

Directed by Awoye Timpo

The Huntington

February 7 – March 9, 2025

Upon entering the Wimberly Theater in Boston’s South End, you encounter a basic living room. Could be the set for a sitcom. But instead of walls displaying family photos or an art reproduction, the edges of the space are defined by thin metal poles (think electrical conduit) receding into hazy depth. In juxtaposing the familiar and the mysterious, the set of The Grove perfectly represents the play itself, which is both universal in portraying familial tensions at the dawn of the era of individual technology, and specific in unveiling the dissonance between the material and mystical within one Nigerian immigrant couple and their first-generation American children.

The Grove is the second of the nine play Ufot Family cycle. The first play, Sojourners is a chamber piece. The Grove is a bigger production in every way. A large cast, vibrant costumes, evocative lighting, and complex themes of identity and connection. The recent immigrants in Sojourners were simply trying to survive. More than thirty years later, the central characters of The Grove are reaching beyond food and safety, towards love, belonging: esteem.

It’s 2009 in Worcester, MA. If you know the backstory, that’s all good. (Back in 1978, Nigerian immigrant Abasiama left her newborn baby with its no-good dad in Houston while the messianic student Disciple was convinced his union with Abasiama was heaven sent.) But if you missed Sojourners, no matter. Disciple married Abasiama and completed his PhD. Abasiama became a research scientist. They have three children. Disciple’s rigidity has led him to be less-than-successful in work and his constant rants drive his children deeper into their music and their phones rather than debate ad nauseum how to make Nigeria rise. Abasiama, moderate in every respect, is the primary breadwinner and homemaker. Whatever intimacy may have existed between Disciple and Abasiama is long gone. All that seems left is projecting their dreams onto their children, who shrug the burden.

Adiaha, first born, is home from New York where she recently received a Master’s in Creative Writing. Time for a party! Which means men pontificating politics while women cook and serve and the children try to escape. The play gains traction when the set rotates and, beyond the thicket of poles, we enter Adiaha’s childhood bedroom and the reasons for her discontent become clear. Adiaha has a female lover in New York; she cannot reconcile her family with her desires. She starts writing wild, illegible stuff, prompted by shadows that emerge within and among the poles: Nigerian women from a world Adiaha has never experienced. It’s confusing, but also engaging. The audience hangs on to every utterance it cannot understand.

The Grove suffers a few hiccups. When speaking of America, Director Awoye Timpo lines the actors across the stage and has them deliver lines in a stiff, pageant style, only allowing them to be fully expressive about Nigeria. It’s a subtle and unnecessary affront to the country these characters chose, and like all too many immigrant stories, glorifies the place that was in fact so difficult that it prompted exodus. The device makes even less sense for the children, for whom Nigeria is only an idea. Similarly, the men are unidimensional while the women are full-fleshed. There is so much Disciple, and he is all the same note. Mfonsio Udofia is a gifted playwright who infuses humanity in characters that most resemble herself. She will be a great playwright when she can infuse all of her characters with the breadth that resides within each of us.

The set spins several times as Adiaha betrays her lover, and then her family. Until, ultimately, she comes to terms with herself, and consequently her family and her lover. I will not disclose the resolution except to say it’s beautifully honest, appropriately hopeful, and leaves enough loose ends to make me eager to see the next Ufot play.