Chaucer's raunchiest widow just pulled up to a London pub and she's got STORIES.
A proper local legend. Married five times. Mother. Lover. Aunt. Friend. Alvita will tell her life story to anyone in the pub – there’s no shame in her game. The question is: are you ready to hear it? Because this woman’s got the gift of the gab: she can rewrite mistakes into triumphs, turn pain into parables, and her love life’s an epic poem. They call her The Wife of Willesden... A play that celebrates the human knack for telling elaborate tales, especially about our own lives. Zadie Smith transports Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath to 21st Century North West London, directed by Kiln Theatre Artistic Director Indhu Rubasingh. A production from Kiln Theatre
Writing
Zadie Smith's verse sparkles with Jamaican patois and Chaucerian cheek
Acting
A solo performance that fills the whole room
Direction
Rubasingham makes the pub feel like sacred ground
Director
Indhu Rubasingham
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Smith wrote this during lockdown, specifically for the Kiln Theatre's community — the pub setting mirrors the venue's own bar.
The Maroon ancestry thread reclaims the Wife of Bath's 'loathly lady' origins through Jamaican resistance history.
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