Susanna Fournier is Spending a Season in Hell with take rimbaud

About this episode

Susanna Fournier discusses her new production take rimbaud and the challenges faced by young artists in the Canadian theatre scene.

About This Episode: Playwright, director, and theatre maker Susanna Fournier joins Phil Rickaby fresh from rehearsal to talk about take rimbaud , her ambitious new production at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in association with the Howland Company. Inspired by Arthur Rimbaud's iconic prose poem A Season in Hell, the play is a decade-plus labour of love that explores what it means to be a young artist crashing into the hard realities of the industry — and what happens when you refuse to take the path of least resistance. Susanna and Phil dig into the state of Canadian theatre with refreshing candour: the fear of artistic risk, the pressure to program safe and familiar work, and what it costs artists, emotionally, financially, and creatively, to keep showing up. From graduating the National Theatre School and navigating the post-theatre-school identity crisis, to collaborating with director ted witzel and the Howland Company across twelve years of drafts, workshops, and rewrites, Susanna reflects on what it means to grow up inside a play; and what it takes to finally let it become what it needs to be. This episode explores: What take rimbaud is, and why Rimbaud's A Season in Hell…

People in this episode

Host: Phil Rickaby

Guest: Susanna Fournier

Topics covered

• theatre production
• artistic risk
• Canadian theatre
• millennial anxiety
• creative process
• post-theatre-school identity

Keywords

• Susanna Fournier
• take rimbaud
• Canadian theatre
• artistic risk
• A Season in Hell
• millennial anxiety
• creative process

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, the Howland Company

Books & works: A Season in Hell

Places: Canada

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