She describes forming a band and meeting Liam a drummer in a romantic interlude.  It is when she later goes to the home of another boyfriend, Leo, that we see her terribly patronised by his selfish family and she starts to reflect on the ivory that is in her piano and the destruction and killing of elephants and people in Africa. 

This is a seismic shift in the play and she becomes impassioned and strong as she demonstrates the hurt created in this house where she should have been a welcome guest.  The boyfriend’s family can’t even congratulate her for going to Oxford, without making a dig at Wadham, her college being left wing.  Their old house has five century old wooden beams which the mother says came from very old ships and Lylah realises those ships probably had human cargo. 

Earlier in the play Lylah had said her piano was made of mahogany and pictured how it was grown and harvested and transported to Europe.   The ivory in the piano has an unspeakable history.  The listener to the beauty of the music needs to be aware of its painful, colonial origins.

Lylah’s personal account resonates with the political in a powerful way which helps me understand the impact on her identity and her art. This is an important play which will make you reflect on colonial and ecological injustice.