Elephant
Menier Chocolate Factory
- Opens: Wednesday, 21 May 2025 -
Booking until: Friday, 27 June 2025
Elephant photos
Elephant description
Anoushka Lucas stars in a new production of her debut show, Elephant
Awarded four stars by Broadway World, Time Out, The Times, Evening Standard, Financial Times and The Stage, Elephant lights up the Menier Chocolate Factory for a strictly limited six week season. Award winning actor and writer Anoushka Lucas (Rhinoceros, A Face in the Crowd, Oklahoma!, The Crucible, Henry V, After Life) plays Lylah, directed by Jess Edwards (Passengers) in a freshly-reimagined version of this critically acclaimed play.
The show was commissioned by the Bush Theatre, Menier Chocolate Factory, and Kindred Partners who gave us The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dirty Dancing. All three are collaborating on the revival. With a creative team also including design by Georgia Wilmot, lighting design by Laura Howard, sound design by Xana and video design by Gillian Tan, you can expect a show to remember.
This gorgeous love story is partly a gig, partly a musical, and partly an exploration of Empire: a brave deep-dive into the meaning of identity in modern Britain. In 2022 it wowed audiences at the Bush Theatre's studio space, then transferred in 2023 to the main theatre where it attracted rave reviews. No wonder
Lucas won the Best Writer Award at The Stage Debut Awards for the show, also nominated for Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards.
The story? As a schoolgirl, scholarship student Lylah couldn’t make waves. Her life was all about being good every second of every day or risk losing her scholarship. Home was much the same, a place where she never really felt she could be herself... until a piano turned up and she fell in love for the first time. As a grown-up with a career in music, Lylah finds herself embroiled in a new romance. But something feels wrong. So she turns to her trusty piano for answers. Will she figure out where she came from and why she's here?
Book tickets for this powerful one-woman show written in response to the murder of George Floyd, her experiences of racism, and her search for emotional truth.
