Three years ago, San Diego director Seema Sueko brought the "Lost Boys of Sudan" story to life onstage in a small-scale but dramatically potent production of Mia McCullough's play "Since Africa."

Sueko produced the show's West Coast premiere through her Mo'olelo Performing Arts company, and she returns to the play again this month, directing a new production for the Old Globe.

Sueko's production three years ago was an intimate and moving, if minimalist, experience. Given a larger budget, the Globe's impressive production resources, an Equity cast and a larger canvas on which to set her play (the Copley in-the-round auditorium), Sueko is able to expand her vision, but still retain the magic that marked her earlier effort.

The most notable change is the recasting of the play's central role. "Since Africa" is the story of "Ater," a Sudanese refugee's efforts to assimilate into American culture, and in her 2006 production, Sueko cast an actual onetime "lost boy," one of the many Sudanese refugees who (as children as young as 7 years old) were forced in the late 1980s to walk hundreds of miles through barren wilderness to Ugandan camps after Muslim raiders attacked their villages.

Alepho Deng's acting skills were limited, but his dignity, noble sadness and Sudanese heritage lent an authenticity to the Mo'olelo production. Playing the role of Ater in the Globe production is Warner Miller, who may not look the part, but has the acting chops and complexity to make his character's journey more dramatically affecting.

In "Since Africa," Ater interacts with three well-meaning but equally lost Chicagoans who try to ease his transition to the States. The play covers a wealth of issues, including the search for belonging; the value of traditions and ritual; and the meaning of home and family.

"Since Africa" is set in present-day Chicago, where the 21-year-old Ater has just arrived from Africa. Diane, an uptight and sheltered CEO's wife, newly widowed by her husband's sudden heart attack death while they were on a safari in Africa, has volunteered to mentor Ater, though she's nearly as helpless as he is. Fascinated by African culture and in dire need of purpose, Diane makes Ater her project, teaching him how to cook food that won't upset his stomach, marching him through art museums, buying him conservative clothes and teaching him to drive (something she herself avoids).

Looking on with annoyed bemusement is Diane's acid-tongued daughter, Eve, and Reggie, a black minister who bristles at Diane's casual prejudice and her disdain for Christianity and the missionary movement in Africa.

Each character in "Since Africa" is searching for identity. Ater flounders in the gang- and crime-ridden city, feels no kinship with the African-Americans he meets in the U.S., and longs for the simple, honest life back home in his Dinka village. Diane is emotionally adrift in her grief and looking for a new direction and career. Eve is breaking free of her comfortable childhood to forge a new life for herself. And Reggie is wrestling with questions about his own African heritage and his place in black America.

What makes the play interesting is how these characters' quests frequently connect in clashes of misunderstanding, ignorance and prejudice. The fragile bridge between the characters is a spirit character known as The Nameless One -- balletically danced by Kristin D. Carpenter -- a playful ghostlike presence who embodies the wonderment Ater feels when he arrives, the lost traditions of Africa, the catharsis of grief and even the tree spirit that brings healing between Diane and her daughter.

South Coast Rep veteran Linda Gehringer gives a mercurial, steel-spined performance as the controlling Diane, who (like Ater) has compartmentalized her grief but is having a harder time keeping it from bubbling to the surface.

Willie C. Carpenter is grace and fire together as the dignified pastor Reggie. And Ashley Clements is a natural as Eve, whose recounting of a disturbing childhood assault is so realistic, it's difficult to watch.

Sueko's direction has a seamless, mystical quality, where scenes melt effortlessly into one another and a strong sense for pacing (which is fortunate because the play is talky and longish at 2 hours, 30 minutes). Fleshing out her visual palette is Nick Fouch's compact but multilocale set, Jason Bieber's haunting lighting, and Paul Peterson's evocative sound design that artfully infused with Dinka songs and tribal drumming (Diane's invisible therapist responds entirely in percussive beats).

When Sueko first staged "Since Africa," virtually every performance sold out before the production opened. Local theatergoers now have the opportunity to see it again with all the resources that she didn't have before. It's a winning combination.

"Since Africa"

When: 7 p.m. Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; through March 8

Where: Old Globe at the Copley Auditorium, San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park

Tickets: $29-$66

Phone: (619) 234-5623

Web: www.theoldglobe.org