A one-woman show toured under the auspices of the British Council testifies to live theatre's unrivalled ability to enliven storytelling with a palpable sense of a real human presence.
HeLa relates how researchers at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore stumbled across a way to grow human cells outside the body.This breakthrough opened the floodgates for an amazing upsurge in medical research that discovered cures for diseases and laid the foundation for the human genome project.
At the heart of this story is Henrietta Lacks, a poor black tobacco farmer who was admitted to John Hopkins' "coloured ward" with a debilitating cancer. Tissue samples taken without consent were delivered to researchers who had spent decades unsuccessfully trying to grow malignant cells.
For reasons that are still not fully understood, Henrietta's cells did not die off like all the others but grew exponentially to create an "immortal cell line". These HeLa cells, designated by an abbreviation of her name, are still used today.
Playwright and performer Adura Onashile has created a powerful tribute to this woman using tightly choreographed moments to express Henrietta's exuberant love of dancing and her suffering under the primitive cancer treatments used in the 1950s.
The finely crafted production displays a wonderfully light touch in dealing with weighty issues.
In 60 minutes the play opens a dense network of ideas that are vitally relevant today. At times the tone seems to demonise medical research but these provocations are balanced by acknowledging the amazing progress made in treating disease. The audience comes away inspired and challenged.
