Family Tree by Mojisola Adebayo - ★★★☆☆
When the disease you housed in your body is used to cure people and you receive no credit or reward; you become burdened. When you stand on the frontline during a global health pandemic and all you receive is a round of applause once a week, you become even more burdened.
Transitioning between 3 stories, 2 groups of women and 1 connecting factor, Family Tree explores the interconnectedness between women across generations through the story of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta had a form of cancer and the cells removed from her body went on to be used in developing treatments for everything including IVF and chemotherapy. Through poetry and prose, Mojisola Adebayo celebrates the strength and power in black women throughout history, whilst also presenting issues within race and healthcare that act as mechanisms fuelling inequality, displaying the part they play in everyday life.
Henrietta Lacks played by Amanita Francis is a black woman from Maryland. With Adebayo’s words - she details her experience of erasure with both vigour and anger as she examines what could her legacy could have been, whilst coming to terms with the way black bodies have been used and abused over the years.
Adebayo does a great job of drawing the audience in with her words, whilst Amanita, acts as a tool to drive the audience's understanding of the poetic phases through her monologues. She spends most of her time at the left hand side of the stage, amazed yet perplexed by the tree around her. Dressed in a purple suit, Aminata gracefully and powerfully tells the story of Henrietta Lacks and keeps the audience curious in her pursuit to find out more.
As the play moves on, we are introduced to Mofetoluwa Akande, Keziah Joseph and Aimée Powell who brought humour and colour to the room. The women transitioned between generations, detailing the unethical gynaecology practices performed on women who were kept as slaves, the problems in modern day NHS (where black women are 5 more likely to die during childbirth) whilst connecting all of this history and legacy to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Mofetoluwa, who plays Ain and Anarcha also plays the role of the Yoruba deity Oshun, the goddess associated with water, fertility and love. She brings the play to a close by drawing all the women in the play together displaying their connection to Oshun through dance.
Family Tree is an interesting play exploring important themes. Adebayo’s ability of mixing poetry, rap and plain verse brought excitement to the play and enabled the story to have range. All this said, towards the end of the play and sometimes during the most crucial parts it fell flat, creating difficulties in finding the plot and connection. The text was incredibly thorough which meant a lot was compressed in the 90-minute piece. Additionally, the role of Alistair Hall (Smoking Man) felt more redundant than it should have, with no clear explanation to the reference.
It is clear that Family Tree was delicately written, as the stories discussed are relevant and personal to many black women. Adebayo does a good job in highlighting and contributing to preserving history through the story of Henrietta Lacks, and every black woman alike.
Running till 23rd April, on tour till June.
