James Haddrell reviews the Henrietta Lacks story in Family Tree at the Brixton House

There are certain names in the history of medicine and medical science that reverberate through the years and are widely known today.

Florence Nightingale, Edward Jenner, Marie Curie and Alexander Fleming are all household names, but one person that has been all but forgotten is Henrietta Lacks.

Admittedly Lacks was not a doctor, not a nurse or a scientist, but her influence on medicine since her death in 1951 is immense – and her story is set to be told at Brixton House this April in Family Tree, a new play by Mojisola Adebayo.

Lacks was an African-American woman who, as part of her treatment for cervical cancer, had tumour cells removed in a biopsy in 1951.

Unbeknownst to her or her family, some of those cells were passed on to a researcher.

It was discovered that those cells were particularly resilient and able to reproduce under certain conditions, so they ultimately became the basis for the world’s first ever immortalised human cell line, dubbed HeLa.

Those replicating cells are still being used in research today – there are now likely to be over 100,000 scientific articles published about research derived from the line – but Lacks never gave permission, nor was she even asked.

Her family weren’t made aware of the line’s existence until the mid 1970s.

Winner of the 2021 Alfred Fagon Award, the leading Black British Playwrighting prize, Adebayo’s play was originally commissioned in 2020 by ATC, the UK’s leading producer of international plays, and the Young Vic, as an outdoor work-in-progress piece.

It was first showcased at the 2021 Greenwich + Docklands International Festival.

Adebayo said “Lacks is immortal and her body has touched every life on the planet – yours, mine.

So why have so few people heard of her?

The play paints a family tree of black women whose cells, blood and waters have birthed, raised and changed the world.”

The play’s director Matthew Xia said “Mojisola Adebayo is an exceptional writer and I’m excited that her award-winning play will be seen by audiences far and wide.

“There’s a beauty in her work that responds so well to the present moment while also holding historical malpractice to account.

“It’s fearless, brutally honest, at turns hilarious, and ultimately transformative.

Henrietta’s HeLa cell line forms the basis of the most important medical research and breakthroughs across the last 70 years, from cancer and HIV to Covid, we owe our lives to her.

Denied her place in history, now is the time to bring Henrietta’s epic legacy to life on stage.”

A spokesman for Brixton House said: “Henrietta’s story will surprise many while also highlighting the need for medical research to be more transparent especially as a concern for black communities.

Family Tree is an urgent part of our history and a unique opportunity for the black diaspora to connect and reflect on how our bodies have long been commodified.”

The London Premiere of this new production is at Brixton House from April 12-23.

https://brixtonhouse.co.uk/shows/family-tree/

 

Picture: Aminita Francis as Henrietta Lacks Picture: Helen Murray