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Boston Globe
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘Triumph of Love' lives up to its title
Wadsworth's work was so well-received in its 1992 debut staging at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ, that the folks at American Theatre Magazine referred to it as 'the greatest play that Shakespeare and Molière never wrote.' They're not wrong. Advertisement 'Triumph of Love' is enjoying a colorful, full-throttled production at Boston's Huntington Theatre under Léonide (Allison Altman) is a princess by circumstance who leaves her court to return the throne to Agis (Rob Kellogg), its rightful heir. Accompanied by her maid Corine (Avanthika Srinivasan0), Léonide is driven by doing the right thing, but has also fallen in love with Agis's 'nobility, elegance, charm, and beauty.' Because his crown was usurped by Léonide's ancestors, Agis has been brought up to despise the princess. She must convince him otherwise, but must go through his controlling guardians, Léontine (Marianna Bassham) and her brother Hermocrate ( Both are middle-aged, loveless, and well-trained to resist frivolous emotions. This makes them easy fodder, given commedia dell'arte sensibilities and 18th century morality. In disguise, Léonide's plan is for Agis to fall madly in love with her, so they can wed, and for Léontine and Hermocrate to fall madly in love with her, so the guardians will come to understand her feelings for their ward. She recruits the assistance of Hermocrate's smarter-than-he-looks gardener Dimas (Patrick Kerr ), and ever-observant valet, Harlequin (Vincent Randazzo). Advertisement Patrick Kerr and Vincent Randazzo in "Triumph of Love." Liza Voll Much of the hard work in this play is making sure Léonide's deceptions come across as honorable rather than cruel, and that her love appears authentic. Failure to do so would paint Léonide and Corine as malicious instead of heroic, and everyone else as hapless victims rather than romantic fools. Not to worry. This brilliant corps of performers handles the script with ease and grace, and never loses sight of the comedy that drives everything. They also approach the work with a contemporary cadence and air of spontaneity that makes it immediately accessible. Altman as Léonide wins everyone over with her immense charm, and her passionate expressions of love are so earnest that they make that emotion palpable. This passion breaks down the essence of Léontine's painful repression, which results in Bassham's master class in slow-burn emotional transformation. It erodes the wall that supports Nacer's ramrod-stiff Hermocrate, leaving in its place both laughs and sympathetic pathos. Her passion gently replaces Agis's innocence, which Kellogg so brilliantly manifested, with enlightenment. And it rallies the support of Kerr's stoic Dimas and Randazzo's delightfully sardonic Harlequin. All this takes place in a gorgeously rendered three-tier country estate garden (designed by Junghyun Georgia Lee), complete with lemon trees, a rhododendron, overhanging tree branches, and grass. There's a backdrop of a cloud-swept sky that subtly changes hues (designed by Christopher Akerlind) to complement the shifting humors of the characters. A soft underscoring of original music (designed by Fan Zhang) does the same. Period French costuming (also designed by Lee), with its classical elegance, offers attractive eye candy. Advertisement Everything about this play and this production is intoxicating. Eighteenth century theater goers sure missed out; modern-day Bostonians should not. THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE Play by Pierre Carlet de Marivaux. Translated/adapted by Stephen Wadsworth. Directed by Loretta Greco. At the Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston. Through April 6. Tickets: $29-$165. 617-266-0800, Bob Abelman is an award-winning theater critic who formerly wrote for the Austin Chronicle. Connect with him .
Boston Globe
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘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. Advertisement 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.' Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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.' Advertisement 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.' Advertisement 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,
