Rika's Rooms Comes to the Tabard Theatre

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Ad - An ordinary woman dealing with intense love and loss during
extraordinary times.

RIKA’S ROOMS is a solo-show by the internationally acclaimed, award-winning, South African born, British-Jewish playwright Gail Louw, performed by Chiswick local Emma Wilkinson Wright.

Based on her novel of the same and inspired by her mother’s own life, Gail Louw explores the experiences of an ordinary woman dealing with intense love and loss during extraordinary times. Moving from Nazi Germany to Palestine, to Apartheid South Africa,


Rika becomes a victim of war and a freedom fighter. But instead of committing herself to the cause, she decides to live the good life. At 76 and living with dementia in England,

Rika inhabits two worlds: the present which makes no sense anymore, and the past, peopled by ghosts. Memory isn’t always a reliable narrator.

“In fact, I might want to be a socialist, if I understood what it meant, but I don’t want to live on the Kibbutz and not have my own stuff. I mean I really don’t want to wear big fat Judit’s knickers!”

“Let them look at someone else for a change, not us, keep schtum, close your eyes and enjoy the sunshine and the milk and the honey”.

Rika's Rooms

1st - 25th July 2026
Press Night Thursday 2nd July

Directed by Anthony Shrubsall
Performed by Emma Wilkinson Wright
Executive Producer Apter Arts

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