Nikki Shaffeeullah's A POEM FOR RABIA Has World Premiere This Month

The world premiere of A Poem for Rabia, a Tarragon Theatre Production in association with Nightwood Theatre and Undercurrent Creations, opens this week. The piece, written by Nikki Shaffeeullah in her playwriting debut, runs in the Extraspace from October 17 – November 12, 2023 (opening October 25.) 

In this sweeping production, with action spanning 200 years and three continents, from Calcutta to Guyana to Canada, Shaffeeullah deftly utilises her perspective as an artist-activist to weave together three queer women's stories and offer individual reflections of the Indo-Caribbean diasporic experiences.

In each of their stories, these women fight to maintain their conviction in the wake of a changing world - in Zahra's futuristic 2053 Canada, where prisons have been abolished; in the Guyana of 1953, where a growing national independence movement surrounds Betty; and in 1853, where Rabia is being abducted and sent from Calcutta to the Caribbean on an indentured labour ship. Their story is one of individual commitment to revolution, personal resolve and identity that triumphs, despite a history of intergenerational trauma, which binds these women together.

"The epic scope of Nikki's cross-generational new play is as monumental as the women who paved the way for justice and independence for generations after.  But the singular and collective journeys of these people are confronted with  many challenges.  Nikki asks us to consider lineage and bloodlines as the force that can empower us today," notes Artistic Director Mike Payette.

Payette continues, "Full of wit, poetry, and anachronism, A Poem for Rabia is a feast for the ancestors and today's world alike."

A Poem for Rabia is written by Nikki Shaffeeullah (Artistic Director, The AMY Project) and performed by Virgilia Griffith (Tarragon's Harlem Duet), Michelle Mohammed (Tarragon's The Hooves Belonged to the Deer), Adele Noronha (Touchstone Theatre's Brothel #9), Jay Northcott (Theatre Outré's Parasite), Anand Rajaram (Tarragon's Buffoon) and Nikki Shaffeeullah. A Poem for Rabia features set design by Sonja Rainey (The Theatre Centre's This Is The Point), costume design by Jawon Kang (Tarragon's Redbone Coonhound), lighting design by Echo Zhou (Tarragon's Behind the Moon), sound design by David Mesiha (Arts Club Theatre's The Humans). With assistant direction from Rebecca Ablack (as actor, Netflix's "Ginny and Georgia") and co-directed by Clare Preuss (Theatre Passe Muraille's Cake) and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard (Tarragon's Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers). 

A Poem for Rabia runs in the Extraspace, October 17 - November 12, 2023, opening on October 25. 

A Poem for Rabia (World Premiere)
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
Assistant directed by Rebecca Ablack
Extraspace
October 17 - November 12, 2023 (opening October 25)
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.

CAST + CREW
written by Nikki Shaffeeullah
co-directed by Clare Preuss & Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
assistant directed by Rebecca Ablack
set design by Sonja Rainey 
costume design by Jawon Kang
lighting design by Echo Zhou
sound design by David Mesiha
dialect coaching by Andrew Prashad
stage management by Sandi Becker
apprentice stage management by Kayleigh Mundy
performances by Virgilia Griffith (“Sheree”/”Marsha”), Michelle Mohammed (“Betty”), Adele Noronha (“Rabia”), Jay Northcott (“Jem”/”Tom”), Anand Rajaram (“Farooq”/”Ramesh”) and Nikki Shaffeeullah (“Zahra”)

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