An internationally renowned palaeoanthropologist is set to captivate audiences with her new UK tour.
Ella Al-Shamahi will bring her show, Becoming Human, to Worcester’s Huntingdon Hall Theatre on June 25.
The show, described as a bold, funny, and eye-opening dive into the ultimate origin story, explores how Homo sapiens became the last human species standing.
It traces our unlikely rise from early survival and migration to the extraordinary leap into art, culture, and technology, from cave paintings to cities, symphonies, and smartphones.
The show challenges the idea that human success was about competition, arguing instead that cooperation is our superpower.
Ella Al-Shamahi said: “In this show, Ella focuses on the biggest secret to our remarkable success – for better or for worse, we are the most hyper social, co-operative species that has ever existed.
“We have evolved so many behaviours and traditions to encourage this trait – behaviours which are hiding in plain sight which collectively gave us an edge as a species.”
The show blends cutting-edge science, darkly witty storytelling, and extraordinary fieldwork from some of the most remote and politically unstable places on Earth.
It also weaves in Ella’s own remarkable journey from a creationist upbringing to an evolutionary scientist.
Becoming Human is described as science meets storytelling with a stand-up edge.
It offers a fresh way to understand who we are by looking at where we came from.
The show is set to tour across the UK from May to June 2026, with Worcester being one of the stops.
Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased from Ella Al-Shamahi’s website.
Ella Al-Shamahi is a National Geographic Explorer, specialising in searching for fossils in Palaeolithic caves in some of the world’s most hostile, disputed, and remote regions.
She is the presenter of the critically acclaimed BBC/PBS science series Human, along with numerous TV and radio programmes.
She is also the author of The Handshake: A Gripping History, a Times/Sunday Times Book of the Year.
Becoming Human is a show about humans, for humans, filled with heart, insight, and adventure.