‘The Grove,' asks if you can be true to yourself and part of the collective
When Udofia, a Southbridge native, first started writing 'The Grove' around 2009, she was fresh out of the acting program at the American Conservatory Theater and trying to make ends meet. She was also struggling with some deeply personal questions about what it meant to pursue her own dreams and individuality, despite coming from a collectivist Nigerian culture where values of family and community take primacy.
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At the time, the questions percolating in Udofia's mind felt 'really close to the bone,' she said in a recent Zoom interview. 'What does it mean to be from a collectivist culture but want to self-identify? That was causing tensions inside of me. How does it feel to be both Nigerian and queer? And
that intersection can be tough because there's a lot out there that says you can't be both things. So I couldn't see the forest from the trees inside of this play and decided to put it away.'
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Actress Abigail C. Onwunali at a rehearsal of Huntington Theatre's "The Grove."
Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
The story she envisioned, and continued to refine over the years, follows Adiaha (Abigail C. Onwunali), the first American-born daughter of a Nigerian immigrant, Abasiama (Patrice Johnson Chevannes), the central character of 'Sojourners.' Adiaha is the product of Abasiama's marriage to fellow Nigerian immigrant Disciple Ufot (Joshua Olumide), who she met in 1970s Houston in 'Sojourners.' 'The Grove' unfolds decades later, in 2009. Having completed her master's degree in creative writing, Adiaha has returned to Worcester to visit her family, which includes siblings Toyoima and Ekong, for a graduation party thrown by her parents.
But she's carrying heavy psychic baggage. She's been involved in a romantic relationship with childhood friend Kimberley (Valyn Lyric Turner), an artist with whom she shares a small Brooklyn apartment,
but was recently outed to her mother, who's displeased and upset. Her father remains unaware, and Adiaha is on edge. She's always been the good daughter who made her parents proud. But she now feels torn about her future and anxious that her Nigerian roots clash with her burgeoning queer self-awareness.
'She's in love with her best friend, and she's now dealing with her queerness in a way that she probably hasn't ever verbalized,' Onwunali said, at the Calderwood on a rehearsal break. 'And if her parents find out her truth, it would completely rip up their vision of who she is. So she's at a breaking point.'
While she's home, Adiaha is haunted by the Shadows, mysterious ancestral forces from the spiritual realm who've walked similar paths to the one Adiaha is facing. They're portrayed in the play by actors who speak only in Ibibio, one of the indigenous languages of Nigeria. No English subtitles are provided. Instead, movement and choreography animate the story of the Shadows, each with their unique narratives, as they try to connect with Adiaha.
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That part of 'The Grove,' Udofia said, 'operates more like a musical. So physicality and stylized movement must tell the story of what's happening.' In Adiaha's childhood bedroom, the ancestors come to her armed with a mission, which she struggles to understand.
'The Shadows are her lineage, all of these women who have loved like Adiaha has loved,' Onwunali said. 'They tell her that she doesn't have to feel like you're different or feel like you have to hate yourself. They tell her, 'We were always here.''
In earlier drafts of the play, Udofia said, 'The Shadows worked as antagonistic forces.'
She credits Valerie Curtis-Newton, a director who worked with her on the play in Seattle, with forcing her to interrogate her assumptions about the Shadows' intent. It got her researching the effects of colonialism, which brought homophobia and repression on tribal African societies. 'So I changed the way the ancestors behaved and made it like they are inside of Adiaha, but she can't understand what they're saying. And it becomes the ancestors' job to figure out how to reach her.'
Awoye Timpo, who's directing 'The Grove' at the Huntington, said that exploring how and when the Shadows emerge from the blackness and how they operate onstage has been challenging. 'It's really exciting for all of us, the design team and the actors,' she said, 'to think about how to bring to life multiple dimensions on stage at the same time.'
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Onwunali, who plays Adiaha and portrayed the younger Abasiama in 'Sojourners' at the Huntington last fall, believes that the play is doing something 'revolutionary' in blending naturalism with a heightened theatricality. She's long been a fan of Udofia's work. At the Yale School of Drama, she used a monologue from 'Sojourners' as audition material, and the two women were taught by the same acting instructor (Udofia at ACT, Onwunali at Yale). 'He was trying to teach us opposite things,' Onwunali recalled. 'He was trying to get her to be more expressive, and he was trying to teach me to be more internal.'
It's been thrilling to get to portray both Abasiama and her daughter, Onwunali said, 'because they are rooted in my blood.' Her parents are Nigerian immigrants, and as the first-born daughter, she relates deeply to Adiaha's sense of responsibility. 'You have the weight of the world on you to keep the family in balance, but there's no space left for yourself,' she said.
She also praised Udofia for capturing the reality of 'this really specific experience of what it feels like to be right in between, to be not American enough, not Nigerian enough. You're navigating a new world with these generations coming together and clashing, and it's a tornado.'
The questions that Adiaha is grappling with in 'The Grove' were the same questions that Udofia herself was wrestling with when she started writing the play 16 years ago. But in order to finish it, Udofia had to return to the beginning and channel her younger self. 'It's really tricky to go back as your adult self dang near 20 years later and explore those questions … and edit inside your past writing, because you can't change the way your past self walked.'
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Just like Udofia had to listen to the vibrations of 'the young woman I once was,' Adiaha must listen to the vibrations of her ancestors and the stories they're trying to tell her about the deep roots of her queer identity. In the end, Adiaha's realization — and Udofia's answer — is that 'the collective can hold everybody. The answer is to find the branch or patch of ground where you naturally exist within the collective. It can exist this way, and it's natural to exist this way.'
THE GROVE
By Mfoniso Udofia, presented by The Huntington Theatre Company. At Calderwood Pavilion at Boston Center for the Arts, Feb. 7-March 9. Tickets from $29. 617-266-0800,
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