Theatre Review: Memory, History and Humanity Collide in ‘Rika’s Rooms’ at the Tabard.

🍷🍷🍷🍷 – 4 out of 5 glasses of fine claret! 

Photo: Paddy Gormley.

Some stories refuse to stay in the past. ‘Rika’s Rooms’, now playing at London’s Tabard Theatre, is one of them.

Written by acclaimed playwright Gail Louw and inspired by the life of her own mother, this powerful one-woman drama follows Rika as she journeys through the fractured landscape of dementia. As memories ebb and flow, audiences are taken from Nazi Germany in 1939 to Palestine, apartheid South Africa and finally England, where an elderly Rika struggles to distinguish past from present.

Before becoming a stage production in 2024, ‘Rika’s Rooms’ began life as a novel by Gail Louw, published in 2022. 

In the first half of the play there are two separate stories. The first follows Rika as a 76-year-old, who has dementia, as she becomes repeatedly suspicious of the people caring for her, including her daughter. The second perspective starts when Rika is a young teenager, leaving Germany. The perspective of the inner monologue of a person with dementia is both humorous and deeply moving, offering audiences a rare glimpse into the fear, confusion and vulnerability that accompany a fading memory. I think it is one of the productions greatest strengths. 

Although the shifting perspectives can be slightly difficult to follow at first, the audience gradually becomes familiar with Rika as figures from her past appear like ghosts. In the second half, her relationships with friends and family become more fully developed, allowing her story to unfold with greater clarity. As the narrative reaches its climax, the two timelines eclipse one another, with memories and reality colliding until past and present become almost indistinguishable. The emotional strands are brought together in a poignant and deeply satisfying conclusion.

Award-winning actor Emma Wilkinson Wright carries the production alone, portraying Rika from the age of 14 to 76 while seamlessly inhabiting the many people who shaped her extraordinary life. It’s a demanding role that promises emotional depth, physical intensity and remarkable versatility.

Far more than a story about memory loss, ‘Rika’s Rooms’explores the moral complexities of war, displacement, identity and survival. Rika witnesses some of the twentieth century’s defining moments, forcing audiences to confront uncomfortable questions about political conflict, colonialism, justice and the consequences of personal choices. Yet beneath the historical backdrop lies an intimate portrait of love, family and the lingering power of memory.

Director Anthony Shrubsall keeps the focus firmly on the storytelling, allowing Louw’s script and Wilkinson Wright’s performance to take centre stage. 

For audiences who appreciate theatre that challenges as much as it entertains, Rika’s Rooms’offers an evening of thought-provoking drama. Its themes feel particularly timely in a world still wrestling with conflict, migration and the legacy of historical injustice.

‘Rika’s Rooms’ is running at the Tabard Theatre, Bath Road, London W4 1LW from the 1^st-25^th July 2026.                                       

By Chaya Star