What to know<\/p>\n
A long-awaited Toronto production explores how artistic myth and gendered legacy shape \u2014 and sometimes distort \u2014 the cost of creative survival.<\/p>\n
Take Rimabud examines who gets remembered, who gets erased, and what it truly takes to endure in the arts.<\/p>\n
Blending the life stories of poetic icons with a critique of the arts industry, the show questions the myths that define artistic greatness and the toll they take.<\/p>\n
Four iconic poets, a messy love triangle, struggling artists and a Queer story. That\u2019s what Take Rimbaud, a new play coming to Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, is bringing to the stage.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a moment for most young artists, playwright Susanna Fournier says, when the dream cracks.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the moment they arrive in the city, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to begin \u201can artistic revolution\u201d and instead collide with rent, job and housing precarity, and the brutality of trying to survive in Toronto while making their dream work.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of illusions are shattered,\u201d Fournier told Queer & Now.<\/a> \u201cA lot of heartbreak occurs, and then it\u2019s like, how do you live through that and keep going?\u201d<\/p>\n That question sits at the heart of Take Rimbaud,<\/a> Fournier\u2019s long-awaited new play, now finally premiering after 12 years in development. The production reimagines a constellation of literary icons, including Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Sylvia Plath, and Sappho, as young artists<\/a> navigating Toronto in 2014 and France in 1871.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the story isn\u2019t just a reimagining of history (Hello Bridgerton!), it\u2019s a confrontation with the idea of the artist itself.<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n Arthur Rimbaud: A Queer Inspiration<\/p>\n Describing the first time she read Rimbaud\u2019s A Season in Hell, Fournier says she felt seen.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s humming with such intensity,\u201d she explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n The poem, written just before Rimbaud gave up art entirely, follows a young artist drawn into a lush, seductive world, only to realize he\u2019s actually in the depths of Hell. For Fournier, it mirrored her own experience coming of age in Toronto\u2019s arts scene: the seduction of possibility, followed by the stark reality of sustaining a creative life.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of artists face this question when they start to actually try to make work in a city,\u201d she explained, adding that many soon begin to question if they have the chops to make it in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause it\u2019s a really harsh industry, whether you\u2019re an actor, whether you\u2019re a writer, whether you\u2019re a filmmaker,\u201d she explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n The play\u2019s 12-year process of development reflects that same tension between ambition and reality. First commissioned over 12 years ago, Take Rimbaud evolved alongside Fournier and her collaborators.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been this long on-and-off process,\u201d she explained, adding that the team behind the show have developed their skills while working on the project for 12+ years.\u00a0<\/p>\n What began as an experiment, attempting to \u201ctheatricalize\u201d Rimbaud\u2019s poem, slowly grew into a large-scale, design-driven production.<\/p>\n \u201cI always aspire to make something that you\u2019re like, \u2018Wow, I\u2019ve never seen that on stage before,\u2019\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n Critiquing gendered narratives and stereotypes<\/p>\n Fournier explained that the show is also sharply critical of the narratives that shape the identity of historical figures, especially when it comes to women. Explaining this, Fournier points to the stark divide in how artists are remembered.<\/p>\n \u201cMale artists are typically remembered as heroes\u2026 and female artists become famous because of their destruction,\u201d she said, pointing to Sylvia Plath\u2019s death by suicide as an example.<\/p>\n Figures like Plath, Fournier argues, are too often reduced to their suffering rather than their craft.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n \u201cMen can do seemingly whatever they want as artists and still be geniuses,\u201d the playwright says, \u201cWhereas female artists\u2026 are some anomaly.\u201d<\/p>\n The production pushes back against these narratives, particularly the romanticization of artistic suffering.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of dangerous narratives,\u201d she explained. \u201cYou have to be a starving artist. You have to be working in chaos. You have to be having a breakdown all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n But this is not true, and Fournier says that overall, these narratives can distract from the true process of creating art.<\/p>\n Instead, through Take Rimbaud, she frames art-making as something both sacred and exhausting.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re opening up your spirit, your body, to channel and listen really deeply to a frequency that\u2019s trying to come into the world,\u201d she says. \u201cThat is mentally draining, physically draining.\u201d<\/p>\n Fournier added that exploring the tension that exists between transcendence and survival, between myth and reality, feels especially urgent now.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAny creative person is up against such odds,\u201d Fournier notes. \u201cAnd I think those odds are only increasing with things like AI and generative technology [making us wonder] if any of us will have jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n This means it\u2019s not so much a question of if artists can \u201cmake it\u201d in the industry, a framing Fournier rejects outright, but whether they can endure.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019re a successful artist because you make it,\u201d she says. \u201cWhatever that means.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, Take Rimbaud asks something more difficult, and more honest: what happens after the illusion breaks, and what does it take to keep going anyway? Take Rimbaud opens at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre on May 6, and runs through the 23, with tickets now on sale<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What to know A long-awaited Toronto production explores how artistic myth and gendered legacy shape \u2014 and sometimes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[13587,9535,12889,48,13588],"class_list":{"0":"post-29141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto","8":"tag-buddies-in-bad-times-theatre","9":"tag-queer-now","10":"tag-queer-toronto","11":"tag-toronto","12":"tag-toronto-plays"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}