Actors Touring Company announces new co-production and national tour of Mojisola Adebayo’s Family Tree

Actors Touring Company has announced a new co-production and national tour of Mojisola Adebayo’s play Family Tree.

ATC will collaborate with with Belgrade Theatre Coventry, in association with Brixton House on a new stage production of the piece.

Originally commissioned by ATC and the Young Vic in 2020, an outdoor work-in-progress piece was showcased at the 2021 Greenwich + Docklands International Festival. This new 2023 tour will be the fully-realised stage production.

Adebayo’s powerful and poetic drama explores race, health, the environment and the incredible legacy of one of the most influential Black women of modern times, Henrietta Lacks.

The Belgrade Theatre Coventry will stage the World Premiere from 10 – 17 March before a national tour taking in 12 venues until 17 June 2023 from Keswick to Plymouth, via London, Liverpool and Bristol.

Making up the cast are Aminita Francis (Red Riding Hood, Liverpool EVERYMAN), Keziah Joseph (Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear, NATIONAL THEATRE), Mofetoluwa Akande (A Christmas Carol, BRISTOL OLD VIC), Aimée Powell (Nothello, BELGRADE THEATRE) and Alistair Hall (Safe, NORWICH THEATRE ROYAL).

ATC’s Artistic Director Matthew Xia, who will be directing the production 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 whilst also holding historical malpractice to account. It’s fearless, brutally honest, at turns hilarious, and ultimately transformative.

He adds: “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 alive on stage.”

Mojisola Adebayo added of the new co-production: “‘When I met Matthew Xia, Henrietta Lacks came into our minds at exactly the same time. Xia is magic but Lacks is more, she’s immortal and her body has touched every life on the planet – yours, mine… So why have so few people heard of her? Let alone Lucy, Betsey, Anarcha and more… The play paints a family tree of Black women whose cells, blood and waters have birthed, raised and changed the world. Matthew said to me: “I want the audience to leave the theatre looking up”. I went away and wrote a play on a promise. Come see it.”

The creative team is completed by set and sostume designer Simon Kenny, costume supervisor Maybelle Laye, lighting designer Simisola Majekodunmi, sound designer Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, movement director Diane Alison Mitchell, drama therapist Wabriya King, associate producer Melina Barnett and associate director Amelia Thornber.

For more information, full tour dates and tickets, visit atctheatre.com