Review: ELEPHANT, Bush Theatre

Anoushka Lucas is having a great year. A stellar run as Laurey in Oklahoma! nabbed her a nomination for the Best Actress in a Musical category at the Olivier Awards, but it’s her own Elephant that won her Best Writer at The Stage Debut Awards last month. Premiered at the Bush’s studio space in 2022, the production is back in bigger form. A lonely schoolgirl turns to her piano to ask questions about her identity. All grown up and with doubts about her career and place in the world, she does the same.

Gorgeously directed by Jess Edwards, Elephant is an artistic exploration of a mixed-race existence. It reconfirms Lucas as a complete artist.

An accomplished, evocative solo project, the piece sits between a play with songs and a straight drama infused with socio-politics: much like its creator, it’s impossible to pigeonhole it. She is casually funny between candid reflections that are strong in their stance. While these are sanitised and skittish most of the time, they culminate in an invigorating, rightfully angry invective against the typically English refusal of acknowledging a past of imperialism, colonisation, and the scars that we still bear. This climax puts the whole story into perspective, tying it into the ongoing social discourse.

Lucas is a captivating performer. She’s instantly friendly in her direct address, making the audience her confidante and charming them to bits. As she recalls how the furniture in her council house had to be rearranged around the upright piano Lyla’s parents bought, her character’s life (and perhaps her own too) suddenly revolves around the instrument too. Music becomes respite and reflection, broken up by bullies first and then label executives who are trying to find a way to make her more marketable.

The director places the action on a revolving stage encased in a wooden circle on the ground. The piano is the only element that shoots up in Georgia Wilmot’s cosy but not extravagant design. Edwards’s direction and Laura Howard’s lights engage in a perfect conversation, moving Lyla back and forth across the timeline and interspersing it with a moodier vibe and projections during the songs. Her script curates the very rhythm of the show, giving it a factotum aura to the production with delicate yet assertive writing. It’s intriguing, however, how the soliloquy is far more lyrical than the numbers themselves.

It’s amidst the backhanded humour and upbeat delivery that we can find the melancholic undertones of class divide and the racially motivated abuse she's had to withstand. Lucas builds her argument with an individualism that speaks universally, making her ultimate point with excellent eloquence and precision. It’s a brilliant piece of theatre. Educational and entertaining, empathetic and uncompromising. Elephant has it all.

Elephant runs at the Bush Theatre until 4 November.

Photo credit: The Other Richard

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