Performing HeLa: theatrical bodies and living remains

Abstract

As a biomedical entity that has been the subject of a plethora of artistic and cultural projects, HeLa, the first immortal human cell line, calls for investigations into the human. Extracted and cultured from the cervical tumour of African-American woman, Henrietta Lacks, at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1950s’ Baltimore, HeLa’s robust capacity to grow has ensured its role in numerous medical advances. The first part of this essay synthesises scientific, sociocultural, familial and philosophical perspectives on HeLa, while the second half applies these perspectives to a reading of a theatrical production,HeLa(2013), written and performed internationally by black British artist Adura Onashile. The discussion considers ways in which prevailing cultural narratives that situate Lacks as a victim, dispossessed of bodily agency in life and after death, might delimit productive possibilities for thinking about Lacks as a contributor to biotechnological progress, and about HeLa as a living remain. Lacks’ labour in the creation of HeLa may have been unwitting, but her role in biotechnological progress is profound in that it is constitutive. Onashile’s solo performance—its deft choreography moving across the subjectivities of patient, physician and family—presents the political fact of black female corporeality as part of its exploration of scientific innovation. The theatrical registers of Onashile’sHeLaopen up and nuance imaginings of Lacks/HeLa, moving beyond monolithic conceptions of medical research by creatively investigating Lacks’ scientific contribution in the midst (and in the wake) of medical exploitation.