A Rimbaud Review: A Famous Poet's Surprising Second Life as a Merchant

A new theatrical show brings the wild life of French poet Arthur Rimbaud to the stage. The production is a one-man show, meaning a single actor carries the entire performance alone. Australian actor Blake Draper plays Rimbaud through nearly three hours of drama. The show explores how a famous teenage rebel poet eventually gave up writing and became a merchant in Africa.

The show was created by American filmmaker Patrick Wang. It takes place entirely on a simple 'black box' stage, which is a bare, dark performance space with few decorations. Sometimes, videos of outdoor scenery are projected onto the back wall to break things up. The whole production was made on a very small budget, yet it tells a big, sweeping story.

Blake Draper performs with a lot of energy and dedication throughout the show. He uses an English accent that occasionally sounds like it comes from the city of Liverpool. Rimbaud's mother, sister, and famous companion Paul Verlaine never appear on stage. Instead, their voices are suggested by the sounds of musical instruments, which is a creative and unusual choice.

In the first part of the show, Draper's Rimbaud is a young, dramatic dreamer with long floppy hair. He recites poetry with passion while lounging and posing around the stage. The young Rimbaud escapes his boring hometown of Charleville, France, and heads to Paris with almost no money. He even spends some nights in jail during this restless period of his life.

It is in Paris that Rimbaud meets Paul Verlaine, a fellow poet. The two have a wild, intense relationship that shakes up both of their lives. Verlaine was already a well-known poet, and together the two pushed the boundaries of art and personal freedom. Their story became one of the most talked-about friendships in literary history.

Then comes the big twist in the second half of the show. Rimbaud cuts his hair, grows a moustache, and leaves his poetry behind completely. He travels to Cyprus and then to Africa, where he works as an export merchant, buying and selling goods. This dramatic change is one of the strangest true stories in the history of literature.

The show does a good job of showing that Rimbaud threw himself into his new career with the same fierce energy he once gave to poetry. However, the production does not make it fully clear why he made such a drastic change. The audience is left wondering what exactly caused him to turn his back on the art that made him famous. That mystery is both the most interesting and the most frustrating part of the experience.

The reviewer found the show to be unusual and thought-provoking, but also a little hard to follow at times. Because Rimbaud was a published poet read by many people, the show could have done more to show his connection with his readers and fans. Still, for anyone curious about one of history's most fascinating and unpredictable figures, the show offers a distinctive and challenging experience worth seeing.