Anoushka Lucas in Elephant at Bush Theatre. (Photo: The Other Richard)
Part gig, part musical love story, part journey through Empire – Elephant is a bold and magnetic exploration of mixed-race identity.
At school, Lylah couldn’t ask questions – she had to be good, good, good or else she’d lose her scholarship. At home she couldn’t ask questions; her cousins said she talked weird, and her parents were distracted.
Then, a piano came through the sky and landed in Lylah’s council flat, just for her. As she poured over the keys and sound flooded into all the rooms, Lylah fell in love.
Now an adult, Lylah is swept up in the excitement of a new romance and a budding music career. But something still doesn’t feel right.
In a search for answers, she turns to her piano. Where did you come from? Why are you here? The unspoken truth of their shared history spills into the light.
Following Elephant‘s celebrated sold-out run in the Bush Theatre Studio last year, writer and performer Anoushka Lucas (star of Oklahoma!) reunites with original director Jess Edwards (Hotter/Fitter, Soho Theatre).
★★★★ “Lucas is a writer and actor of rare magnetism” The Guardian
WON Best Writer, The Stage Debut Awards
NOMINATED Most Promising Playwright, Evening Standard Theatre Awards
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Adam is a Lighting Designer and Production Manager from Essex. Previously, he was the Technical Manager of the New Diorama Theatre. Recent work: After The Act (New Diorama), War & Culture (New Diorama), Under The Kundè Tree (Southwark Playhouse), Jekyll and Hyde (Derby Theatre), Project Dictator (New Diorama & Edinburgh), Everything Has Changed (Tour & Edinburgh), Dorian (Reading Rep), A Shoddy Detective (Tour), Wrestival (Pleasance London), Our Last First (The Space) and Please Love Me (Edinburgh Fringe).
Anoushka Lucas is a singer, songwriter, actor and writer.
Anoushka’s debut play Elephant premiered at the Bush Theatre in 2022.
As an actor, other credits include: Oklahoma! (West End / Young Vic); Henry V (Donmar); After Life (National); U.Me (BBC World Service). Her other credits include: Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent’s Park); Chiaroscuro (Bush); Faces in the Crowd (Gate); Sparks (Edinburgh Fringe/VAULT Festival).
As a composer, Anoushka co-composed the score to The Ballad of Klook and Vinette by Ché Walker (Park/NAMT Festival NYC), and The Etienne Sisters (Stratford East). More recently, Anoushka wrote the score for Sparks by Jessica Butcher (BBC Radio 4/Edinburgh Fringe/VAULT Festival) which won Best Musical of the Edinburgh Fringe 2018 and was adapted for BBC Radio 4. Anoushka, Jessica Butcher and their collaborator Jessica Edwards are currently under commission from Trafalgar Studios for a new musical.
Anoushka’s own music has been championed on BBC Introducing, BBC Radio 2 and Jazz FM and her debut album “Dark Soul’ was released in 2019.
Elsie graduated from RADA with a BA (Hons) in Stage Management in 2022. Since graduating she has worked on productions such as Rose (Park Theatre), The Tale of the Beauty and The Tail of the Beast (Creation Theatre), Animal (Park Theatre/Hope Mill Theatre) and the West End transfer of Rose.
After graduating with a degree in Interior Design from Liverpool John Moores University, Georgia worked on Misfits S3 (Channel 4), and as a costume trainee on Monroe (ITV) before deciding that Set Design was
something to be explored. Georgia’s set and costume credits include: Elephant (Bush Theatre), Covered (New Heritage Theatre at Paddington Arts Centre), Superdrug’s YouTube channel Christmas campaign 2017, I knew you
(Birmingham Repertory Theatre), days of significance (Questors Theatre). In 2018, Georgia had the opportunity to create concept designs and illustrations for Designer Tim McQuillen-Wright for Secret Cinema’s Blade Runner. In 2021 Georgia designed sets for the Bush Theatre’s, Project 2036 which included: Pawn (by Devon Muller), One Day (by QianEr Jin) and LimBo (by Latekid). In August 2021, Georgia returned to Bush to design the set and costume for the Young Company introductory performance Back Up! (Devised and Directed by Katie Greenall)
Writing and illustration: Georgia illustrated the first children’s book fromThe adventures of series, as well as working as a digital design content creator for My Trauma, My Healing with Simone Powderly. During the last year, Georgia has written and illustrated her first children’s book and created a range of illustrations as part of a diversity and inclusion campaign.
Gillian Tan is a multi-disciplinary designer, working across lighting and video for various theatrical, immersive and interactive experiences.
Theatre credits: A Playlist for the Revolution (Bush Theatre); South Pacific (Chichester); Mind Mangler (Mischief); Stars (ICA & Tour); The Body Remembers (Fuel); Black Love (Paines Plough / Belgrade / tiata fahodzi); Really Big & Really Loud (Paines Plough / Belgrade); Cinderella – The Awesome Truth (Polka); Alyssa, Memoirs of A Queen (Vaudeville); Aisha and Abhaya (Royal Ballet / Rambert); Majestique (Skråen); The Song Project – Is In Our Blood (Royal Court); 4.48 Psychosis (Lyric Hammersmith / Royal Opera House); La Soirée (Aldwych / Southbank / Skråen); Coraline (Barbican / Royal Opera House); Tamburlaine (Arcola); Invisible Treasure (Ovalhouse); Who Do We Think We Are (Southwark); Crocodiles (Royal Exchange).
Film credits: NYX and Gazelle Twin Present: Deep England, a performance film by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard; Held Momentarily (RAM).
She is also a member of the Somerset House Exchange and is the Head of Video at RADA.
Jess Edwards is a Queer writer and director who splits her time between Margate and Tottenham in North London. Jess directed and co-wrote Torch (New Diorama / Underbelly), Passengers (Summerhall / Adelaide Fringe) and The Box (Theatre Deli / Latitude).
More of her directing credits include: War and Culture (New Diorama); Elephant (Bush); Funeral Flowers (Roundhouse and UK tour); Albatross (Playground); Hotter/Fitter (Soho); Sparks (HighTide / Radio 4 / Pleasance); The Other Tchaikovsky (Radio 4); Nacktsängerin (BKA-Theater, Berlin); Denim: World Tour (Soho / Underbelly); Punts (Theatre503); The Itinerant Music Hall (Lyric Hammersmith / Latitude); Jekyll & Hyde (Southwark / Assembly).
Jess has also worked as an associate director at the the Young Vic, Almeida, Theatre Royal Bath and in the West End. She has won the Summerhall Lustrum Award for Passengers and the Best New Musical Award for Sparks. In 2021 she was awarded a Developing Your Creative Practice grant from the Arts Council for her writing.
She is currently workshopping her first play, creating a new musical with Trafalgar Entertainment Group, and developing two original screenplays.
Jess won the Studio21 Script Competition for her original pilot, Clitorati.
Judith trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Previous work includes numerous productions with Creation Theatre at various locations around Oxford, the London Library and online digital work, most recently Much Ado About Nothing at SOAP (co-pro with OVO, St Albans), On The Other Side Of The War, Our Town and The Seagull (Oxford School of Drama), Fragments (Potential Difference Theatre – Playground Theatre and The Old Fire Station), Road and Beryl (Oldham Coliseum), When The Long Trick’s Over (High Tide and New Wolsey Theatre), Waiting for Lefty (Two Lines Productions, online), Amelie (Hartshorn and Hook, tour), Persuasion (Theatre 6, tour) and several productions with The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Laura is a freelance Lighting Designer who trained at LAMDA as a recipient of the William and Katherine Longman Charitable Trust Scholarship. Often working in new writing, Laura’s work is led by story, whilst also offering bold, atmospheric designs. For Bush Theatre: Invisible, Clutch, Elephant, The Kola Nut Does Not Speak English.
Lighting Designer credits include: Snow Queen (Polka Theatre), Black Is… (New Diorama), Brassic FM (Gate Theatre), Salty Irina (Paines Plough), Exodus (National Theatre Scotland), Faun (Cardboard Citizens), The Beach House (Park 90), Manorism (Southbank Centre), Dead Air (Stockroom), Moreno (Theatre 503), Dismissed, Juniper & Jules, SPLINTERED, curious (Soho Theatre). Assistant Lighting Designer credits include: Amadigi (English Touring Opera), and Constellations (Donmar/West End).
XANA is a freestyle live loop musician, composer, spatial sound artist music supervisor and a haptic specialist sound designer developing accessible audio systems for live art spaces. XANA is the music science and technology lead and project mentor supporting artists and inventors at audio research label Inventing Waves.
Theatre credits: The Architect (ATC/GDIF); Beautiful Thing (Stratford East); Imposter 22, Word:Play, Living Newspaper #4 (Royal Court); Anna Karenina (Edinburgh Lyceum / Bristol Old Vic); Galatea (Wildworks, Marlborough Productions); The Trials, Marys Seacole (Donmar); Earthworks, Sundown Kiki: Reloaded, The Collaboration, Sundown Kiki, Changing Destiny, Fairview, Ivan and the Dogs (Young Vic); …cake (Theatre Peckham); Who Killed My Father (Tron); as british as a watermelon (Contact); Hyde and Seek (Guildhall); Elephant, Sleepova, The P Word (Olivier Award), Strange Fruit (Bush); Burgerz (Hackney Showroom); Everyday (Deafinitely); Black Holes (The Place); Sankofa: Before the Whitewash, Hive City Legacy (Roundhouse); Glamrou: From Quran to Queen, Curious, Half-Breed (Soho); Blood Knot (Orange Tree); Noughts and Crosses (Pilot); SEX SEX MEN MEN, Samuel Takes A Break (Yard); Rumble In the Jungle (Rematch:Live).
Xana is the recipient of the 2023 Best Sound Design award from the Black British Theatre Awards (BBTA).
