Books

Rika's Rooms

Rika's Rooms explores the experiences of an ordinary woman caught up in intense love and loss during extraordinary times.

As a young girl of only fourteen, Rika leaves behind her beloved parents, and escaped Nazi Germany just prior to the outbreak of World War Two. She fled to Palestine, and lived with her aunt in Tel Aviv, rather than her...

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Gail Louw Collected Plays

Blonde Poison; Miss Dietrich Regrets; Shackleton's Carpenter; Two Sisters

Four plays, four iconic characters

Blonde Poison: Stella Goldschlag, a Jewish woman living illegally in war-torn Berlin, is betrayed and tortured. When offered the chance of saving herself and her parents from the death camps, she agrees to be a ‘Greifer’ for the Gestapo and inform on Jews in hiding. Decades after the war Stella agrees to be...

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Gail Louw Plays Two

Duwayne; The Mitfords; The Half Life of Love; Joe Ho Ho

The second collection of plays from Gail Louw, including the plays Duwayne, The Mitfords, The Half Life of Love and Joe Ho Ho.

DUWAYNE: Traumatised by his best friend's murder, Duwayne Brooks was treated as a potential criminal instead of a witness. He faced years of torment by those who should have been on his side. He survived Stephen...

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Gail Louw Plays Three

The Ice Cream Boys; Being Brahms; A Life Twice Given; Killing Faith

A third collection of plays by South African writer, Gail Louw.

Includes the plays The Ice Cream Boys, Being Brahms, A Life Twice Given, and Killing Faith.

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The Ice Cream Boys

Jacob Zuma and Ronnie Kasrils

There are some enemies you'd wait a lifetime to see face-to-face. Charismatic, corrupt and dangerous, Jacob Zuma was until recently President of South Africa. But before Zuma came to power, Ronnie Kasrils masterminded the intelligence services. Now at last they're alone together. When you've been betrayed, it's never too late to settle old...

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The Good Dad

A Love Story

Honour thy mother and thy father. Thou shalt not murder thy father. Nor thy mother. But definitely not thy father. If thou art going to murder either of your parents, murder thy mother instead of thy father. Do not murder thy father.

The whole family knew he was a good dad. A really good dad. But he wasn’t well, had a weak heart, so they all...

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Blonde Poison

Blonde Poison is based on the true story of a Jewish woman during World War II who betrayed up to 3,000 fellow Jews. Gail Louw's powerful play examines the motivation of evil. Stella Goldschlag was living illegally in war-torn Berlin when she herself was betrayed and tortured. When offered the chance of saving herself and her parents from the...

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The Only White

From the series: Gail Louw Series of Plays

Mid-winter 1964, a phone rings at Johannesburg Railway Station. John Harris speaks quickly into the receiver: “This is the African Resistance Movement. We have planted a bomb, It is not our intention to harm anyone. Clear the Concourse.”

They don’t..

The bomb explodes, twenty-three are injured, one dies.

Does the end justify the means? Does one...

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Herschel

From the series: Gail Louw Series of Plays

Herschel is a story of heroism amongst ordinary and extraordinary people, of impotence in the face of national and personal brutality, and of gestures, both meaningless and poignant which have resonated with historical developments. This is a play about a boy who responded to a situation of tragedy and horror for his family and his people by...

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Steps Out of Time

From the series: Gail Louw Series of Plays

Shabat in Tzfat - a magical, beautiful time in an old, stunning part of Israel. Evening approaches and Bernice, a 30 something British woman arrives at the bus station. He is not there to meet her, but three other men are hanging about at the station, playing chess, drinking coffee, waiting. Who are these men and how will they affect Bernice,...

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Camera Obscura

From the series: Gail Louw Series of Plays

Karen is lonely. Her daughter has gone to university, her husband is an academic with far more to think about than Karen. But Karen has a great group of friends, who pop in for drinks and food and chat. They bicker and bring their own ideas of what Karen should do and what she shouldn't, and they tell stories of their own lives. Because they've...

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