a pOEM FOR RABIA
A Tarragon Theatre production in association with Nightwood Theatre and Undercurrent Creations
Written by Nikki Shaffeeullah
Co-Directed by Clare Preuss and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
October 17 – November 12, 2023
Tarragon Theatre – Extra Space (30 Bridgman Avenue)
An epic journey across time, oceans, and tectonic shifts in political history. A Poem for Rabia weaves the stories of three queer women from the same bloodline: Zahra, a disillusioned activist in 2053, navigating a Canada that has just abolished prisons; Betty, in 1953 British Guiana, caught between her new secretarial job at the Governor’s office and the growing national independence movement; and Rabia, an Indian domestic worker in 1853, abducted by colonial ‘recruiters’ and sent sailing from Calcutta to the Caribbean on an indentured labour ship.
TICKETS
General $35-$65 | Arts Workers $25 | Students $15
Previews: October 17-24, 2023
Performances: October 26 – November 12, 2023
Tuesdays – Saturdays at 7:30pm. Saturdays & Sundays at 2pm.
There will be post-show talkbacks October 29 & 31, and November 5 &7.
Tickets can be purchased at the button below or by calling the Tarragon Theatre box office at 416-531-1827.
Click here for accessibility information.
Check out the rest of our 2023-2024 season and consider a Nightwood Season Pass for additional savings!
PRODUCTION TEAM
Playwright: Nikki Shaffeeullah
Co-Director: Clare Preuss and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
Set Designer: Sonja Rainey
Costume Designer: Jawon Kang
Lighting Designer: Echo Zhou
Sound Designer: David Mesiha
Featuring: Virgilia Griffith, Michelle Mohammed, Adele Noronha, Jay Northcott, Anand Rajaram, and NIkki Shaffeeullah.
A Poem for Rabia Community Events
We invite you to the opening of “Many Waters” — an evening by Undercurrent Creations celebrating LGBTQ2 Guyanese artists & community — on October 21 at 6 PM.
Many Waters is an art installation featuring work by LGBTQ Guyanese artists in Toronto. The opening will take place before the showing of A Poem for Rabia that evening (tickets sold separately). There will also be a post-show reception featuring an appearance by Tifi Wine. Come join us for an evening of art, theatre, food, drink, community and celebration!
Many Waters is a Community Arts Program for LGBTQ2 Guyanese in Toronto, presented by Undercurrent Creations & The AMY Project, with support from Tarragon Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, and SASOD Guyana, and funding from Toronto Arts Council.
For more info about Many Waters, please email: info@undercurrentcreations.ca.
Before the October 24 performance of A Poem for Rabia, Undercurrent Creations will host “Breathing New Legacies Forward: Ancestoral Stories & Artistic Creation,” a workshop led by Diane Roberts, Founding Artistic Director of Arrivals Legacy Project.
The Arrivals Legacy Project guide, gather, and challenge artists and creators to access and re-route their creative impulses by attuning to the wisdom of their ancestral stories. Their mission is to ignite the joy of deepening creative collaborations that amplify and re-centre the rich cultural legacy of BIPOC artistry. The production A Poem for Rabia was developed in part through Arrivals Legacy Project processes.
This workshop is free with registration here.
The Sunday, November 5 matinee of A Poem for Rabia will include a post-show panel on “Storytelling Indenture: Queer & Feminist Perspectives.”
Hosted by Undercurrent Creations and moderated by sociologist Cristine Khan, the panel will feature three artists, activists and descendants of indenture: Premika Leo, Kama La Mackerel, and Nikki Shaffeeullah. The conversation will reflect on how, over one hundred years after the abolition of indentured labour, its descendants across diasporas are creating narratives about this period of time and the collective impact it had on communities across generations.
This panel is presented with support from the Toronto Arts Council.
Purchase tickets to the November 5 performance here.
