The Grove Reviews

The Boston Globe - Recommended

"...With their collective commitment to presenting all nine plays in Mfoniso Udofia’s Ufot Family Cycle over the next couple of years, Boston theater companies and other arts organizations placed a dauntingly big bet on a playwright many — most? — local theatergoers had never heard of."

WBUR - Highly Recommended

"...“The Grove” is the superb second play in Udofia’s Ufot Family Cycle at the Huntington Theatre through March 9. All the stories in Udofia’s nine-play cycle — each is written to also stand alone — will be produced over two years in Boston and beyond."

Joyce's Choices - Highly Recommended

"...THE GROVE now onstage at the HUNTINGTON’S CALDERWOOD PAVILION is simply magnificent. Playwright Mfoniso Udofia has given us an extraordinary theatrical gift which exceeds all the demands of the medium. The second in her nine-play UFOT FAMILY CYCLE, informed by the playwright’s own roots as a first first-generation Nigerian American who grew up in Massachusetts, THE GROVE is poetry in motion."

Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended

"...The second in Mfoniso Udofia’s ambitious nine-play Ufot Family Cycle, The Grove, directed by Awoye Timpo, picks up the story of the Ufot family over three decades after the first play, Sojourners, introduced us to Abasiama Ufot, a Nigerian woman who comes to the United States to further her education. At the end of Sojourners, Abasiama decides to stay behind when her husband returns to Nigeria."

The Arts Fuse - Somewhat Recommended

"...Director Awoye Timpo, who was at the helm of the Huntington Theatre Company staging of The Bluest Eye, brings an uneven touch to the HTC’s world premiere production of The Grove. The spats among the Ufot family members are rushed over: bitter clashes between feuding members, such as an estranged father and son, are opaque explosions. On the other hand, a tough/tender scene between Abigail C. Onwunali’s Adiaha and Patrice Johnson Chevannes’ Abasiama is shaped with a requisite care for its emotional ups-and-down, laughter giving way to exasperation."

New England Theater Mirror - Recommended

"...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."

The New England Theatre Geek - Highly Recommended

"...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."