The production Ruth First is being staged at the Artscape until Saturday August 4. Ruth First was a journalist, academic and political activist during the height of the apartheid era who was detained, persecuted, exiled and eventually assassinated for her activism and beliefs. Married to fellow communist and anti-apartheid activist, Joe Slovo, she served on the drafting committee of the Freedom Charter. On 9 August 1963, she was arrested and kept in solitary confinement under the notorious 90-day clause becoming the first white woman to be arrested under this act. Her account of her period in detention was published in her 1965 book, 117 Days. Ruth First opened at the 2016 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and played to standing ovations. There will be shows today, Thursday August 2 and tomorrow, Friday August 3, at 7.30pm, and Saturday August 4, at 3pm, and 7.30pm. Tickets cost R150 and can be brought from Computicket or Artscape Dial-A-Seat on 021 421 7695. Pictured is Jackie Rens as Ruth First.