Mfoniso Udofia Brings Nigerian American Family Saga to Life in ‘runboyrun’ | EUR Video Exclusive

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

*Mfoniso Udofia, a first-generation Nigerian American storyteller, steps into the role of Abasiama Ufot in the podcast adaptation of her play “runboyrun,” marking her first performance in her acclaimed Ufot Family Cycle. The three-episode audio drama from Next Chapter Podcasts debuted June 16 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and major platforms.

The series unpacks the lingering effects of the Nigerian Civil War on a married couple, Abasiama and Disciple Ufot. Recorded in GBH’s state-of-the-art studio, “runboyrun” is the third play in Udofia’s ambitious nine-play cycle chronicling three generations of a Nigerian American family.

Udofia, who holds a master’s degree from the American Conservatory Theater, describes the experience of embodying Abasiama: “I did discover how tired my lead character is of Abasiama. I discovered how the drag of history over time and the choice she makes to say yes and do something loving after being wrecked inside of her marriage. It cost, in a different way, when I was performing it, knowing that everyone was going to hear it.”

Udofia’s background as an actor informed her writing process, where she would “shout in my room, acting all the parts at once” to capture the emotional weight of her characters. “runboyrun” explores the internal battle of Disciple Ufot, portrayed by Chiké Johnson, who returns to the role after performing it at New York Theatre Workshop. The story centers on Disciple’s struggle with PTSD from the Biafran War, which fractures his connection to Abasiama and threatens their 30-year marriage.

Udofia explains, “Disciple experienced the war when he was around 12, if I’m remembering correctly. And he’s been living on that loop ever since.” The audio format amplifies this intimacy, with Udofia noting, “There’s a way in which the audio play feels a little scarier even than the stage play. Because you can feel in Lindsay Jones’s sound design how we’re moving from one world into another, and you’re discomfited.”

The podcast format allows “runboyrun” to transcend the Greater Boston audiences who have followed the Ufot Family Cycle, a nine-play saga lauded by The Boston Globe as “one of the most exciting things to happen in Boston theatre in a long time.” Udofia hopes new listeners will be drawn into the family’s journey: “I hope that you are interested enough to experience the rest of the cycle in some way. To ask yourself, what brought these people to Worcester, Massachusetts? Why is this Nigerian man who’s got echoes of war?”

She aims to foster empathy, adding, “I hope it builds empathy for people who might not have the same realities as you. Disciple is extraordinarily complicated. I am never asking anybody to go, hey, let’s make Disciple my best friend. What I’m asking, though, is can we maybe imagine a world where we don’t negate him, where we hold illness inside of conversation?”

Udofia’s research into the Biafran War, informed by “a file cabinet full” of documents and firsthand accounts, grounds the play in historical authenticity while prioritizing emotional resonance.

“There is a difference for me between what is academic and a paper, and what is a play. And a play will slam you more into the emotional state,” she says. Her focus remains on the human cost of war: “The Biafran War became a frame, a frame that is important for me to unpack, being Nigerian myself and a descendant of people who went through a war, that war. I wanted to locate it, but I wanted the focus to be on the human.”

Working with Johnson, whom Udofia describes as “a friend” and “like my brother,” brought warmth and depth to the recording process. “He dragged all of the knowledge from the New York premiere into the booth with him,” she says. “It meant we could run faster because the work is pretty dense. It’s pretty poetic. And he knew what all the beats were and just kept filling them out and rounding them out.”

For Udofia, writing “runboyrun” was a personal exploration of a central question: “When does trauma become tradition?” She reflects, “The play for me and being inside of these characters gives me an opportunity to explore a question and then to have empathy for people who I think are coming at the question in ways I don’t agree with. And so I too am on an empathy journey and the plays helped me get there.”

This journey extends to her vision for global audiences, particularly immigrants who may lack “languages of therapy.” She explains, “I am interested in immigrants and people who don’t have languages of therapy to figure out what talking about some of the things that might have happened so that trauma doesn’t become tradition. And if a play can prod people to talk, then that is building forward.”

As “runboyrun” reaches listeners worldwide, Udofia’s work continues to break new ground, offering a poignant exploration of trauma, resilience, and the power of conversation to heal.

Watch our full interview with Mfoniso Udofia below.

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