ARSEHOLES
a new play about Arthur Rimbaud & Paul Verlaine
Performing 12th, 13th and 14th of June.
Bernard Sunley Theatre, St Catherine’s College, Manor Rd, Oxford OX1 3UJ.
Doors 7.00pm. Performance 7.30pm.
TICKETS £10 (full price) / £5 (student discount)
available now through our wegottickets.com page .
Tickets will also be available on the door, but we recommend booking online to avoid disappointment.
FREE TICKETS available for St Catz students
If you are at Catz, email fionn.montell-boyd@stcatz.ox.ac.uk to reserve your seat.
a new play about Arthur Rimbaud & Paul Verlaine
Performing 12th, 13th and 14th of June.
Bernard Sunley Theatre, St Catherine’s College, Manor Rd, Oxford OX1 3UJ.
Doors 7.00pm. Performance 7.30pm.
TICKETS £10 (full price) / £5 (student discount)
available now through our wegottickets.com page .
Tickets will also be available on the door, but we recommend booking online to avoid disappointment.
FREE TICKETS available for St Catz students
If you are at Catz, email fionn.montell-boyd@stcatz.ox.ac.uk to reserve your seat.
Synopsis
In September 1871, Paul Verlaine, an established poet living with his wife’s parents’, took seventeen-year-old Arthur Rimbaud under his wing, inviting him to move into the family home in Paris. It was not long before Verlaine fell under the spell of the talented and irreverent teenager. The two became lovers, and their violent and hedonistic relationship would destroy Verlaine’s reputation, torture his wife Mathilde, and alienate his friends and colleagues. At the same time, it was perhaps only with Rimbaud that Verlaine was ever truly free. Whether the two of them knew it or not, their meeting would change the course of French poetry forever.
At once dark, comical, and passionate, ‘Arseholes’ tells the story of a love affair like no other. You will be taken on a journey through nineteenth-century French family life, absinthe-fuelled poetry readings at the Hôtel des Étrangers, the rags and riches of Victorian London, and a hotel room in Brussels laid ready for a suicide, the whole layered with saucy dialogue, French music, and period costumes.
In September 1871, Paul Verlaine, an established poet living with his wife’s parents’, took seventeen-year-old Arthur Rimbaud under his wing, inviting him to move into the family home in Paris. It was not long before Verlaine fell under the spell of the talented and irreverent teenager. The two became lovers, and their violent and hedonistic relationship would destroy Verlaine’s reputation, torture his wife Mathilde, and alienate his friends and colleagues. At the same time, it was perhaps only with Rimbaud that Verlaine was ever truly free. Whether the two of them knew it or not, their meeting would change the course of French poetry forever.
At once dark, comical, and passionate, ‘Arseholes’ tells the story of a love affair like no other. You will be taken on a journey through nineteenth-century French family life, absinthe-fuelled poetry readings at the Hôtel des Étrangers, the rags and riches of Victorian London, and a hotel room in Brussels laid ready for a suicide, the whole layered with saucy dialogue, French music, and period costumes.
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Written & Directed by Julia Hartley
Produced in collaboration with St Catz Arts Society CAST Arthur Rimbaud — Archie Foster Paul Verlaine — Inigo Howe Mathilde — Tamar Koplatadze Father in Law — Steve Goddard Mother in Law — Keshya Amarashinge Servant — Sophie Cachera Charles Cros — David Rochat Théodore de Banville — Seth Whidden Edmond Lepelletier — Julian Blum Ernest Cabaner — Matt Gibson Albert Mérat — Alex Nachman Jean Aicard — Hugo Kaeys Stéphane Mallarmé — Freddie Wolff Boy — Alex Wilson Girl — Nicole Rayment |
COSTUMES
Oxfordshire Drama Wardrobe LIGHTING Richard Owen & Freddie Wolff MUSIC Composed by Alex Baxter Directed by Matt Gibson Hydropaths Song lyrics by Charles Cros, translated by Julia Hartley PHOTOGRAPHY Jonathan Kirkpatrick STAGE MANAGEMENT Vittoria Fallanca & Ali Rafiee SPECIAL ADVISOR Seth Whidden |
