Buildings and bodies are swept up and twisted until they are unrecognizable. It's easy to see the visible consequences of conflict. But sometimes, the havoc war wreaks internally isn't as noticeable. At least not at first.
For married couple Disciple and Abasiama, who lived through a Nigerian civil war in the 1960s, the trauma still rages within. It takes up so much space in their lives that in playwright Mfoniso Udofia's "runboyrun," Disciple declares that something is living in the house with him and his wife. He is determined to remove it with prayer.
"runboyrun" is directed by Christopher V. Edwards, artistic director of the Actors' Shakespeare Project. It is the third play in Udofia's nine-narrative Ufot Family Cycle, which is being produced over a couple of years with the help of multiple partners. The show, which had its world premiere at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, will be recorded as a podcast in partnership with the Boston Public Library, GBH, and Next Chapter Podcasts. There will be a live reading of the play at the Boston Public Library on March 13 and at the Huntington Theatre on March 14.
Podcast listeners and reading attendees will meet Disciple's mother and siblings. They are living in a refugee camp as they attempt to escape the war. The narrative moves back and forth through time, from 1968 in war-torn Nigeria to a creaky, colonial-style home in Worcester in 2012.
To ready Udofia's narrative for a new medium, Catherine Eaton adapted the script for audio. In this production, with dramaturgy by Charles Haugland, sound design and original music by Lindsay Jones, and language consulting by Emmanuel Sylvester, Udofia will take on the role of Abasiama. Chiké Johnson from television's "Law and Order" and "Prison Break" will play the role of Disciple, which he portrayed in the premiere.
"He's our romantic hero," Udofia said of Disciple. She talks of his appearance in the first play, "Sojourners," where he and Abasiama meet in the U.S., and 30 years later in "The Grove." By then, "there's something inside him that seems to have calcified. And you meet him at the top of 'runboyrun,'" she said, "and you begin to understand why." Udofia's hope is that audiences will ask themselves what grace is, and how we "hold some of our most complicated characters because of the history they come out of."
In "The Grove," the second installment of the Ufot cycle, characters often speak their native language, Ibibio, onstage. In "runboyrun" there's less Ibibio apart from what is spoken by Disciple's mother.
"What has been expanded in this play," Udofia shared, "is the amount of poetry and other people in the past who are going through war [who] don't necessarily speak in Ibibio. But they are speaking in a more heightened verse."
This poetry is "so that we don't actually make the war so easy to digest, which sometimes happens. And there's something about poetry that makes you sit up, lean forward, and actually hold it," Udofia said.
The theatrical version of the story is visual, Edwards said. So, translating it for radio requires a different approach. In the audio play, walla (the sound of a murmuring crowd), using props in real-time while recording and other sounds will be key. With the help of the Next Chapter Podcasts, creating this world is a refreshing challenge that Udofia and Edwards welcome. As they rehearse, the cast and crew learn what works best and what might be changed while Udofia makes adjustments based on their findings.
Udofia is determining which textual cues or dialogue will be narrated and which will be part of the soundscape. Edwards has been considering how to "paint an auditory picture vocally," he said.
To give "runboyrun," listeners a sense of place, there will be the sound of desert wind, missiles, and the rustling of palm trees. Then, to bring listeners to Massachusetts, they'll add the crunch of feet on snow, and the creaking floors of the couple's home in Worcester. Edwards shared that Abasamia watches a lot of TV in the present, so the sound of TV shows and ads could be used.
This isn't the first time Edwards has directed audio work. There were virtual theater offerings during the height of COVID, but a few years back, he did some episodic work with Def Jam Records for a podcast called "Here Comes the Break." Edwards explained that the show explored the themes of music, coming-of-age, and mental health.
Mental health is at the core of "runboyrun," too. Though Disciple and Abasiama are far from Nigeria, their memories and ghosts of the past remain. They manifest as explosive arguments and accusations. The couple pursue their dreams and have a family in America, but Disciple is underutilized at work. He's brilliant but suffers from brain waste, Edwards described that as when the credentials of immigrants aren't accepted in a new country.
As their difficulties reach a fever pitch, Abasiama, whose name means "God's love," has to make a choice. And that choice is incredibly complex for Abasiama because she realizes her partner is a casualty of war, Udofia said.
Whatever Abasiama decides, Disciple's sister offers some words that might be of help.
She said, "From divine broken came our world. It's from that that we come to know ourselves."
And, if Abasiama truly knows herself, perhaps she will make the right choice.