Elephant – Menier Chocolate Factory

Anoushka Lucas in Elephant at the Menier Chocolate Factory, London. Picture: Manuel Harlan

Elephant continues at the Menier Chocolate Factory, London until 29 June 2025.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

In Elephant, Anoushka Lucas delivers a powerful solo performance as Lylah that peels back layers of identity, expectation and quiet rebellion. Originally performed at the Bush Theatre and now staged at the Menier Chocolate Factory, the show is both an intimate confessional and a lyrical meditation on dual heritage, ambition and the cost of always being “good”.

We follow Lylah shifting between the present day as a woman trying to make it in the music industry to memories of being a young girl in Hammersmith, navigating class and race in a world that can’t quite figure her out. She dissects her experience through a striking metaphor: the slow deconstruction of a piano. As she literally and metaphorically pulls apart the instrument, she interrogates the inherited scripts we follow – what it means to be obedient, diligent, polite – and the emotional toll of constant self-suppression. The narrative builds with deliberate restraint, until a final outburst offers catharsis not just for her, but for the audience too. It’s a moment of hard-won release that feels as much about self-advocacy as it is about survival.

At the heart of the show lies a sharp and uneasy reckoning with colonial legacy. Lylah wrestles with the dissonance of not fully understanding her own cultural identity while navigating relationships with those whose family histories are embedded in empire. In one piercing anecdote, she recalls visiting the nine-bedroom ‘cottage’ of a boyfriend whose family proudly displays “treasures” – piano keys made from ivory, beams salvaged from slave ships — relics of a brutal past presented as heirlooms. The scene is chilling in its quiet normalcy, laying bare how the spoils of colonialism are still woven into everyday domestic spaces.

Lucas’ voice – both in song and speech – is captivating, as is her movement, expertly directed by Jess Edwards to use the piano as a climbing frame, podium and resting place. Lighting designer Laura Howard creates an effective dreamlike atmosphere, with pulsating lanterns charting the shifting emotional landscape of the piece, mirroring the show’s movement between memory, reflection and reinvention.

Elephant wrestles with big questions: what does it mean to not fit into society’s neat boxes? How does that shape – or limit – success? And how can you begin to redefine yourself outside of the frameworks handed down to them? Lucas doesn’t offer tidy answers; instead, she invites us into her process of self-reclamation.

At times, the show feels dense, so much is packed into a short running time, but that fullness seems intentional. Amid heavier themes, there’s also a celebration of the joy of learning, of discovery, and of creating one’s own language for self-expression.

Ultimately, Elephant is more than a performance; it’s a reckoning. Bold, poignant and fiercely intelligent, Lucas offers a voice – and a vision – that demand to be heard.

Elisha Owen