When it comes to Mfoniso Udofia’s “Sojourners,” now at The Huntington in an outstanding production directed by Dawn M. Simmons, it’s all about: Check, check, check and check.
On top of all this, “Sojourners” faces a challenge as monumental as it is unique: is it robust and creative enough to serve as the launching pad and infrastructure for eight other plays by Udofia?
Verify.
A first-generation Nigerian-American, Udofia grew up in Southbridge and graduated from Wellesley College. Her collaborator, Simmons, co-founded the Front Porch Arts Collective, a black theater company that has made important contributions to the vitality of Boston theater in recent years, including a highly successful co-production last year of Front Porch and the Huntington on Lenelle Moïse’s “PEE,” with help from Simmons.
Set in Houston in 1978, “Sojourners” is the origin story of Udofia’s Ufot Family Cycle, a total of nine plays that follow three generations of a Nigerian-American family.
In the coming years, all nine plays will be staged in productions by more than two dozen arts organizations, in a citywide festival created by Huntington Artistic Director Loretta Greco, including the aforementioned Front Porch Arts Collective, ArtsEmerson and Central Square Theatre.
It is hard to imagine a more auspicious debut for this ambitious enterprise than the Huntington production of “Sojourners.” Simmons draws fully committed performances from his stellar cast of four.
At the center of the play is the heavily pregnant Abasiama, a doctoral student from Nigeria who works as a cashier on the night shift at a gas station convenience store. Abigail C. Onwunali’s performance as Abasiama is just outstanding.
While traversing a wide spectrum of emotions, Onwunali manages to be convincing at every point on that spectrum. There is a fierce will, an indomitability, that makes Abasiama a woman to be reckoned with, but Onwunali makes sure we also see the cracks, vulnerability, doubt and self-questioning that are part of the immigrant experience.
Abasiama’s charismatic but headstrong husband, Ukpong (Nomè SiDone), is also a student, but not as committed to his studies, to put it mildly. For all his exuberant and theatrical temperament, Ukpong seems impetuous and insecure, at risk of losing his sense of self in a new country. But Ukpong feels a strong connection to Motown music – pop culture, which is sometimes a lifeline for newcomers.
Abasiama’s motherly care is shown when she meets Moxie, a young woman who comes outside the convenience store one evening and soon enlists Abasiama’s help in filling out a job application. As Moxie, Asha Basha Duniani is an absolute comedic whirlwind. Duniani doesn’t so much enter a scene as burst into it.
Then there is Disciple, a struggling writer played by Joshua Olumide. At first he strikes us as a good guy, and possibly, amid her marital problems, a love interest for Abasiama. The disciple really sees himself that way. But a fuller, more complicated picture is steadily emerging, and Olumide is subtle about filling in that picture.
Jason Ardizzone-West designed the moving set for “Sojourners” as an intriguing mix of abstraction — in the form of a forest of wire cables — and permanent detail (apartment furnishings, the glassed-in booth where Abasiama works.)
It is impossible to watch “Sojourners” without thinking of the late August Wilson, who had a strong association with Huntington. Wilson has had a huge influence on contemporary playwrights with his Century Cycle, also known as the Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he wrote a play for each decade of the 20th century. (A film adaptation of his “The Piano Lesson,” set in the mid-1930s, has just been released.)
Wilson’s goal was to capture the complexity and variety of the Black experience. I think he would find much to admire in “Sojourners” and in Udofia.
TRANSMITTER
Game by Mfoniso Udofia. Directed by Dawn M. Simmons. Presented by The Huntington. At the Huntington Theatre, Boston. Through December 1. Tickets $30-$165. 617-266-0800, huntingtontheatre.org
Don Aucoin can be reached at donald.aucoin@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeAucoin.
