Riki Lindhome talks new one-woman show ‘Dead Inside’: “The more these experiences are spoken about honestly, the less isolating they become”

Known for her acting work in hit shows such as Wednesday and Big Bang Theory, the TV star arrives in the London scene with a personal piece exploring pregnancy loss, adoption, and surrogacy. Guillermo Nazara chats with the writer and performer to learn more about the gestation of the show and how she’s turned all these dramatic experiences into a theatrical bundle of joy.

How does it feel to bring the show to London for the first time?

It feels really exciting! Each time I bring the show to a new place, it feels like another step in its development. London has such a strong theatre culture, and audiences here are very engaged and thoughtful, so it’s a great environment to continue shaping the piece.

There’s also something meaningful about bringing a story like this to different audiences and seeing how it resonates. Even though it’s a very specific experience, the emotional core tends to translate, and I’m always curious to see how that plays in a new city.

Has the piece evolved in any way since its original Edinburgh run?

A lot. Edinburgh was about discovery – figuring out what the show actually was. Performing it every day gave me a very clear sense of what was working, what needed to be clearer, and how the structure functioned in front of an audience.

Since then, I’ve been refining it – tightening the writing, clarifying the storytelling, and rebuilding a lot of the technical elements so everything feels more cohesive. The show is quite cue-heavy, so a big part of the evolution has also been making sure the technical elements support the comedy. 

How challenging is it to explore such an intimate, personal, and somewhat delicate matter so openly, both from a creative and acting perspective?

At the beginning, it was definitely challenging. There’s something inherently vulnerable about taking a personal experience and putting it on stage in front of an audience. But over time, I think I just got used to it, and it became less about reliving it and more about taking the audience on a journey. 

Why do you think the subject of infertility is still somewhat taboo?

I think a big part of it is the amount of shame that’s still attached to it, and how much of that shame tends to fall on women. There’s this unspoken expectation that your body should just work a certain way, and when it doesn’t, it can feel very isolating.

At the same time, medically, we’re still in a place where there’s a lot we don’t fully understand. Even with access to excellent care, there are often no clear answers or straightforward solutions. Things like IVF are more established now, but even those have relatively low success rates, and there’s still a lot of uncertainty built into the process.

So you have this combination of high expectation, limited understanding, and a lot of silence around it, and that’s what keeps it feeling taboo.

Is the show intended to break that taboo? If so, how will it do it?

Yes, I think it is. For me, the way to do that is by speaking about the experience very candidly and in a lot of detail. There’s something powerful about just saying the thing out loud, especially in a shared space like a theatre.

My hope is that by being open about my own experience, it creates permission for other people to do the same. Even if it’s just in their own lives, in smaller conversations.

I think the more these experiences are spoken about honestly, the less isolating they become.

What are the reasons behind the show’s stylistic approach (use of music and humour as its main tone)?

I think a big part of it is that musical comedy is my comfort zone. I’ve been performing funny songs for about 15 years, so using that form felt very natural to me. 

The subject matter, on the other hand, was very much out of my comfort zone. It’s extremely personal and confessional, and that kind of openness didn’t come as easily to me. So I think, instinctively, I leaned on a format that I understood and trusted in order to tell something that felt much more vulnerable. In a way, I used a familiar form to navigate unfamiliar territory.

It’s easy to veer into the superfluous when approaching something comically. How have you managed to make the piece poignant?

For me, it comes down to not forcing either side. If something is emotional, I let it be emotional. If something is funny, I let it be funny.

The comedy isn’t there to gloss over the experience, it comes from the reality of it. A lot of the situations are genuinely absurd, and that’s where the humor lives.

What other challenges have you found in the making of this piece?

One of the biggest challenges has been structure and figuring out how to shape a long, complex experience into something that works theatrically.

There’s also the technical side. The show relies on a lot of cues – music, projections, transitions – so making all of that feel seamless and integrated has been a significant part of the process.

And then there’s the balance of tone, which took time to get right. It’s a show that moves between different emotional states, and finding a way to make those transitions feel natural took a lot of trial and error. 

Are there any highlights in the show that you’d like to flag?

There’s a song in the show that people tend to really respond to – it’s essentially a breakup anthem on behalf of the Baroness Schraeder from The Sound of Music. It kind of flips the perspective of the original musical on its head and reimagines that storyline in a completely different way. 

Why come see Dead Inside?

I think the big reason is that there’s really nothing else quite like it. And even though it’s a very specific show, the response has been that it feels surprisingly universal. For people who have been through something similar, it can be really cathartic to see it reflected on stage. And for people who haven’t, hopefully it offers a window into an experience that isn’t often talked about openly.

Dead Inside plays at London’s Soho Theatre until 18 April. Tickets are available on the following link.

By Guillermo Nazara