Boston’s Huntington Theatre has named the company for Adia & Clora Snatch Joy, the musical that closes Mfoniso Udofia’s nine-play Ufot family cycle. Awoye Timpo directs the world premiere, which runs November 24–December 13.
The cycle has been a two-year, citywide undertaking: a consortium of Boston companies has staged all nine of Udofia’s Ufot plays across 2024–2026, from Sojourners and The Grove to runboyrun and In Old Age. It began at the Huntington, and the ninth play brings it home to the same stage. The theater says the new piece works as a first visit to the family as well as a last one.
Udofia wrote the book, libretto and lyrics. Michael Ellis Ingram has composed the score for a cappella voices, and Adesola Osakalumi choreographs.
The setting is the marshland of South Carolina, where Clora Abernathy opens her door to Adiaha Ufot, a stranger from Massachusetts. Both women have given their lives to caring for their parents. What passes between them raises a question neither has asked before: what happens if, as grown women, they let themselves feel desire, pleasure and joy.
Tracey Conyer Lee and Shannon Lamb play Elder Adiaha Ufot and Elder Clora Abernathy, with Ebony Marshall-Oliver as Adiaha Ufot and Zonya Love as Clora Abernathy. The younger women are each shared by two performers: Nelly Santos-McKenzie and Ginaylah Nunes Teixeira as Young Adiaha Ufot, and Phoenix Noelle and Elena Rose Taveras as Young Clora Abernathy.
April Armstrong is Abasiama Ufot, Nicole Michelle Haskins is Clora Abernathy Sr. and Kojo is Aniekan Abernathy. A chorus of wood-whittling and basket-weaving spirits includes Kay Patterson, Arielle Rogers Wilkey, Lorraine Victoria Kanyike, Nina Evelyn, Regina Morgan and Daveda Browne, and Bobby Cius, Abria Smith, Melynda Davis, Aimée Coleman and Becky Bass complete the company.
Sets are by Jason Ardizzone-West, costumes by Sarita P. Fellows, lighting by Reza Behjat and sound by James Cannon, with wigs, hair and makeup by Earon Chew Nealey. Brendon Shapiro is music director.
The night before the first performance, on Monday, November 23 at 7pm, members of the company join a screening of Daughters of the Dust at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.
Performances are at the Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, from Tuesday, November 24 to Sunday, December 13, 2026, with the press opening on Wednesday, December 2. An open-captioned performance is on Tuesday, December 8 at 7pm and an audio-described one on Saturday, December 12 at 2pm. A limited number of $29 seats are held at most performances, and student tickets are $25; details are on the Huntington’s website.
