Ufot Family Cycle

The Ceremony’ Revisits and Rewrites the Ufot Legacy

Posted by

0

Lumanti Shrestha, Khadaj Bennett in CHUANG Stage’s ‘The Ceremony’
Photos by Ken Yotsukura

By Shelley A. Sackett

Playwright Mfoniso Udofia’s nine-play Ufot Family Cycle follows the various members of the Nigerian Ufot family across three generations, starting with the brutal Nigerian Civil War (also known as the Biafran War) of 1967-1970. With the world premiere of  The Ceremony, the sixth in the series, Udofia brings the family firmly into the present (2023) with all its contemporary social mores and cultural pressures.

The Ufot Family Cycle is an unprecedented two-year city-wide festival where theaters and arts organizations around Greater Boston join to produce the nine plays in partnership with universities, social organizations, non-profits, and a host of community activation partners. The Ceremony is produced by the pay-as-you-are CHUANG Stage. At two plus hours (one intermission), the play focuses on the marriage between 31-year-old Nigerian-American Ekong Ufot (a fine Kadahj Bennett) and 32-year-old Lumanti Shrestha (equally fine Mahima Saigal), a Nepalese-American. Both are first-generation Americans, born in one country and raised by parents anchored in another

Whether the two can intertwine their Nigerian and Nepali heritages, with their different cultural traditions— and, more importantly, whether their families will let them — is the challenge they face as they try to plan a wedding that offends none and pleases most.

Compromise is the goal, but first the affianced couple must circumvent complex family issues, including their equally estranged fathers: Disciple (a powerful and complex Adrian Roberts), Ekong’s father; and Lumanti’s never seen but equally resistant father. How well they circumvent these stealth emotional and psychological IEDs will determine if Ekong and Lumanti make it to the wedding finish line.

Udofia leaves us guessing whether the couple can pull it off until the end, one reason the lengthy play doesn’t feel quite as long as it is.

[Although the nine plays are touted as being discrete stories linked together through lineage and characters, those unfamiliar with the Ufot family history may want to prepare by investing the time to listen to the excellent podcast, runboyrun. (It’s worth it for context). The third play in The Ufot Family Cycle, it focuses on Disciple as a boy in war-torn Nigeria and helps understand his tormented character, his relationship with his ex-wife and Ekong’s mother, Abasiama (the always welcome Cheryl D. Singleton), and the significance of such seemingly innocent props as a clock and a stick in The Ceremony.]

The play opens in Worcester in media res, with Lumanti center stage and the Nigerian women (Ekong’s mother, Abasiama, and sisters, Adiana (Regine Vital) and Toyoima (Natalie Jacobs)) above, on a lightly propped catwalk. Large staircases bookend the stage and are used with a practiced light touch under the spot on direction by Kevin R. Free. Cristina Todesco’s efficient and creative set and Andrea Sala’s restrained but effective lighting create a trifecta of simultaneous activity.

All the women are talking at once. Lumanti speaks into her cell phone in Nepali. Unlike some of Udofia’s previous plays (especially The Grove), the use of long passages of unsubtitled, non-English language is not off-putting. Here, the actors and Udofia offer enough clues so that the audience, instead of being shut out, is treated like special guests, invited for a behind-the-scenes peek at what life is like for this young, second-generation couple.

Lumanti is talking to her father, and we get the gist that she is getting an earful. Upstairs, the Nigerian women, with Abasiama lapsing into her native Ibibio, seem to be okay with the wedding, although the sisters are a little less enthusiastic than their mother.

It seems that white, in Nepalese culture, represents death, yet Lumanti has agreed to wear white for the wedding. “We wanted a western wedding,” she unconvincingly says.

The action swings back to the lower stage, where a table and couch shift the scene to Ekong and Lumanti’s apartment. Ekong is in the midst of a disciplined workout. His eyes are glued to one of three overhead projections showing the same episode of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” the 1992 iconic Black American television show starring Will Smith (projection and digital content design by Michi Zaya).

Ekong doesn’t just enjoy the show, however. He needs it, and his eyes bulge with the panic of an addict who needs his fix until the set flips on. Only then can he truly relax. His mouth goes lax and he zones out from his outside world to the interior existence he channels, where he can step into a world of what his life could have been like if he had had different parents.

He sets a romantic table, complete with flowers and wine. When Lumanti enters the apartment, he is blindsided when she tells him her father, who had adamantly opposed and boycotted their wedding, has changed his mind. He will make the trip from Kathmandu after all. She is overjoyed.

“And you believe him?” Ekong asks. Ekong had assumed that, because Lumanti’s father was a no-show, his own father’s (Disciple) absence wouldn’t be questioned. Suddenly, Lumanti believes both their fathers are capable of change and she wants him to reach out again to his father with the news that hers will be in attendance.

It turns out Ekong never even spoke to his father. Lumanti, changed by the fact that her father will bear witness to the ceremony, has other news — she wants their wedding to be more traditional and include rituals from their two cultures.

“Why?” Ekong asks. “I’m Nepalese,” she replies. “Since when?” he demands. “Since dad said he’s coming,” she responds in all honesty.

And so the scene is set that will drive the rest of this thought-provoking, entertaining, and well-produced drama.

Udofia weaves together several subplots that show, rather than tell, the backstory of Ekong and his father’s 20-year estrangement. The owner of a successful physical therapy practice, Ekong bonds with Philip (the excellent Roberts), a client whom he equates with the idealized Black father figure in the TV show. He even tries to enlist him as a surrogate father, but Philip wisely declines.

Meanwhile, Lumanti navigates her own journey with her mother, Laxima ‘Amma’ Shrestha (Salma Qamain), and Auntie (Natalya Rathnam, funny and wise), and their reactions to the news that her father will attend. The older matriarchs share relationship and marriage advice and the three dig into the work of turning the secular wedding into more of a cultural celebration.

Act II brings out the dramatic strengths of the action and script, especially the scenes between Disciple, Abasiama and Ekong, and, of course, the wedding ceremony itself. Director Free makes free use of the full stage with multiple, simultaneous locations and conversations that keep up the pace and audience’s interest.

Eventually (no spoiler here-), the wedding takes place and the audience is both invited and delighted by the multi-traditional festivity. Something new and unique to Lumanti and Ekong (and their families) has been born from the blending of two families intent on preserving their heritage while acknowledging contemporary realities. Two parts really can make a new whole, but for the audience, the destination was never the brass ring. The journey, with all its potential derailings lying in wait and complicated intra-familial, was always what it was about.

Director Free brings out the best in his cast (with special shout-outs to Bennett (Ekong), Saigal (Lumanti), and Roberts (Disciple)), and Udofia’s script is crisp and unpreachy with just the right amount of humor and pathos. As an added bonus (like we needed one), we get to ride shotgun as both Ibibio and Nepali wedding traditions are unveiled before our eyes, a lovely touch.

There is a reason the show sold out almost immediately, although last-minute seats may be available. Do yourself a favor and try to be one of the lucky ones who scores one.

‘The Ceremony’ — Written by Mfoniso Udofia. Directed by Kevin R. Free. Presented by CHUANG Stage at Boston University’s Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre, 820 Commonwealth Ave., Boston through October 5.

For more information, visit https://www.chuangstage.org/the-ceremony

‘The Grove’ Continues the Ufot Family’s 9-Play Journey from Past to Present to Future

Posted by

0

The cast of ‘The Grove’ at the Huntington. All Photo Credits: Marc J Franklin

‘The Grove’ – Written by Mfoniso Udofia. Directed by Awoye Timpo. Scenic Design by Jason Ardizzone-West; Costume Design by Sarita Fellows; Lighting Design by Reza Behjat; Sound Design and Original Music by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen. Produced by The Huntington Calderwood at BCA Plaza Theatre at 539 Tremont Street, Boston, through March 9.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Anyone remotely interested in the Boston theater scene is aware of the city-wide, unprecedented commitment to present Mfoniso Udofia’s Ufot Family Cycle over the next couple of years. These nine plays follow a Nigerian family in America and Africa through 40 years and three generations. The first, “Sojourners,” premiered at The Huntington last fall to universal praise. In it, audiences were introduced to Adiaha, the first American-born daughter born to Nigerian immigrants Abasiama and her husband Ukpong. The setting is 1970s Houston, where Abasiama studies hard and works in a gas station to make ends meet. When Ukpong goes AWOL, Disciple Ufot befriends and eventually marries her, raising Adiaha as his own. Like Abasiama, Disciple is studious and hardworking, with a plan, like hers, to return to Nigeria upon graduation. Unlike Abasiama, he is also intensely religious.

The Huntington continues with its world premiere of ‘The Grove,’ the second play in the cycle, which picks up the Ufot family story 30 years later, in 2009 in Worcester. Family and friends have gathered to fête and honor Adiaha (a magnificent Abigail C. Onwunali) after her graduation with a master’s degree in creative writing.

Abigail C. Onwunali

The pre-party atmosphere is anything but festive. Her father, Disciple (Joshua Olumide), sings Ibibio praise songs while relentlessly and neurotically barking orders at Adiaha and her younger siblings, sister Toyoima (a very good Aisha Wura Akorede) and brother Ekong (Amani Kojo). Nothing is clean enough; nothing is good enough. Every minute is spiritual warfare.

Toyoima and Ekong, who still live under Disciple’s roof, tolerate his harangues, complying with just enough teen attitude to satisfy their need to feel like they are dissing him, yet not so much to risk his catching on.

Adiaha, on the other hand, is walking on eggshells. She defers to Disciple, cajoling her siblings to humor him. She is, after all, the one child Disciple trusts with his legacy. It is a great honor; it is an even greater burden. That legacy is a collectivist Nigerian culture where values of family and community eclipse the individual and her particular emotional and psychological needs. Adiaha is, and has always been, the daughter who made her family proud and internalized and externalized her Nigerian roots. Even today, as her increasingly frantic father sputters and verbally abuses his family, she is the compliant one, humoring him while urging her siblings to just play along and keep the peace in the house.

Onwunali and Patrice Johnson Chevannes

If Adiaha looks adrift and uneasy — and she does — she has every reason to. She is a lesbian, sharing her small apartment with her artist childhood best friend, Kim (Valyn Lyric Turner). She has led a closeted life as far as her family goes, that is, until her mother recently found out and was devastated. Her father remains clueless. If he finds out the truth about her queerness, his image of her will implode (as might he).

The set changes to Adiaha’s childhood bedroom, where she busies herself throwing the trophies that line her shelves into her trash basket, ridding herself of “the kid I was.” Emmy Award-winning scenic designer Jason Ardizzone-West has created a rotating set that is like a crème-filled cookie — the outsides are the family living room, Adiaha’s bedroom in Worcester, and later, her apartment in Brooklyn.

The rich middle is a grove of metal poles. Five female “Shadows,” dressed in traditional garb, live in this middle ground, dancing and chattering and chanting in Ibibio (Nigeria’s native language). They beckon to Adiaha. While they and their staging are captivating, their role is not just as artistic eye and ear candy. They are storytellers who tell their tales through choreography and language. They will show Adiaha that she can be true to herself while still being part of a rich heritage that only became patriarchal and homophobic with the advent of colonialism. They want to help her with safe passage from past to present to future, a true rebirth into a world of self-acceptance and cultural pride. (Kudos to director Awoye Timpo for her steady, light touch).

Janelle Grace and Ekemini Ekpo

Meanwhile, however, Adiaha is in a pickle. Her father has gathered Udosen (the magnetic Paul-Robert Pryce), her assimilated, “fun” uncle, and Maduka Steady (Godwin Inyang), the “stodgy” uncle who wears his Nigerian garb as if wielding a royal scepter. The conversation among the men centers on despair over the plight of their heritage at the hands of the young who have adapted in America by embracing, for example, all matters of things that involve earplugs.

“Look at our history. When did we lose our way?” Disciple and Maduka lament.

While the men try to relegate women to subservient roles, the scenes between Adiaha and her mother, Abasiama (Patrice Johnson Chevannes) and sister Toyoima are among the most poignant and revealing. Adiaha’s younger sister tries in vain to get her to confide in her as a way to ease her pain and grease the wheels to her freeing herself from her father’s yoke. Her mother admits that her father is difficult and getting worse, yet she values and, therefore, must prioritize her tribal heritage over her personal happiness.

“Continuing the line is the most important thing in life,” she admonishes. “If you are a lesbian, then you can’t have a child…Sometimes life is sacrifice. Putting aside what you feel for what is righteous.”

Act II of the 1 hour 45 minute (1 intermission) play opens with a prolonged scene that sheds light on Adiana and Kim’s relationship. Although going through a rough patch, it’s clear that the two share a bond that goes deeper than girlfriends; they truly are soulmates, able to talk and share in intimate and revealing ways. When Adiana begins speaking Ibibio in her sleep, we sense the possibility of a bridge between past and present.

Onwunali and Valyn Lyric Turner

Eventually, Adiaha learns (with guidance and help from the Shadows) that she can indeed be the way she is and still be Nigerian. She is a tree who finds her grove and is not alone. Just like when she was a child, all will be good again.

Playwright Udofia, a Southbridge native, started writing ‘The Grove’ in 2009 but put it aside as she struggled with her own issues about being both Nigerian and queer. Luckily, she returned to the work once she realized that the collective could honestly and naturally hold everyone — including a queer Nigerian — and that there were deep roots that existed even for her. Part three of the Ufot Family Cycle, runboyrun, will be produced as an audio play adaptation by Next Chapter Podcasts in partnership with GBH with readings held at Boston Public Library – Central Library: GBH Studio & The Huntington Theatre. I, for one, can’t wait.

Note: Although the cast of 13 is a terrific ensemble, Olumide might choose to reread playwright Udofia’s character notes, which describe Disciple as “not a one-dimensional monster; he is a complex human being. He displays signs of PTSD/emotional and psychological distress, the influence of traditional Nigerian cultural norms and patriarchy, as well as bad behavior.” Olumide’s unnuanced version on opening night was frantic and loud, leaving little room for audience empathy.

For more information and to buy tickets, go to https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/