‘The Great Privation’ Digs Into the Past at Woolly Mammoth Theatre

In The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar), now playing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, playwright Nia Akilah Robinson delivers an imagined world that bridges nearly two centuries of Black American life. This new work offers a moving meditation on legacy, labor, and the ways history lives, sometimes literally, beneath our feet.

The story unfolds across two timelines, connected by a single stretch of land in Philadelphia. In 1832, a mother and daughter stand vigil by a loved one’s grave, guarding it from medical grave robbers who target cemeteries to meet the demand for cadavers in medical schools. [In the 1800s, medical grave robbers, also known as “resurrectionists,” targeted Black cemeteries as well as burial grounds for the poor and other marginalized groups, who were sought to meet the high demand for cadavers for anatomical dissection.] 

The Great Privation’s nighttime scenes hum with quiet tension, as characters wrestle with impossible choices. But in the present day, that same land has become a summer camp, with scenes that offer levity — even comedy — in stark contrast.

As stories from the past begin to seep into the modern world, the lines between time periods begin to blur, revealing what was buried… and what refuses to stay that way.

Yetunde Felix-Ukwu plays the maternal roles from both time periods with warmth and authority, grounding the piece with her steady presence. Victoria Omoregie, as Charity, brings sensitivity to the role of the younger daughter in the 1832 timeline and spark in the present day; her curiosity about the world often clashing with the harsh realities she’s forced to face. Marc Pierre’s Cuffee is a quietly complex figure whose choices ripple across the narrative, while Zack Powell’s John adds both the comedy and the tragedy.

Set design, particularly the earth-toned set and atmospheric lighting, underscores the idea of layers: of soil, of time, of memory, and enhances the thematic weight of the play. A skeletal, weathered tree dominates the stage, its roots stretching deep into the earth, suggesting both the cemetery’s past and the buried histories of the Black community.

Rather than offering a conventional historical drama, The Great Privation opts for a more poetic approach, asking questions rather than answering them outright. What do we owe our ancestors? How do we honor stories that were never meant to be told? And what does it mean to try to “flip ten cents into a dollar” — to turn survival into legacy?

This production is part of Woolly Mammoth’s response to America’s upcoming 250th anniversary, and it doesn’t shy away from difficult truths and harsh beliefs. But its heart lies in the relationships: between mothers and daughters, the living and the dead, and the land we all live on — together.

The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar) runs at Woolly Mammoth Theatre through October 12, 2025, before transferring to the Modern Theatre at Suffolk University in Boston (January 9–31, 2026). Tickets available here.