A new play is coming to one of Toronto’s premiere destinations for new theatrical work this fall.
"A Poem for Rabia," written by multi-hyphenate theatre artist Nikki Shaffeeullah, opens in the Tarragon Theatre Extraspace on Oct. 26. The play follows three queer women across time from the same bloodline: a disillusioned activist in Canada in 2053, a secretary in British Guiana in 1953 and an Indian domestic worker in 1853.
“It’s about the characters, their relationships, their moments in time,” said Shaffeeullah in an interview. “To me, the Commonwealth isn’t at the centre of the story.”
Shaffeeullah explained that the play spans 200 years, but the similarities between the three displaced women are myriad – they’re each navigating “big moments” in their own lives, she said, “while the worlds around them are…undergoing seismic shifts of their own.”
The project has been in development since 2012, when Shaffeeullah created the “first seed” of what would eventually become the play in a workshop.
“I kept that in the back of my mind until 2017, at which point I started writing it very slowly over the years, on and off,” she said. “I started working on it with other people in 2019, doing development workshops with actors and directors, and in dialogue with community members.”
By 2021, the play was well on its way to production. Shaffeeullah says rehearsals and workshops informed her process quite a bit.
“Theatre is a collaborative art form, and everyone who touches the work makes an impact,” she said. “I really value hearing from other artists and community members about what in the work resonates with them, what feels challenging and how it intersects with their own experiences.”
Shaffeeullah is appearing in the play herself as Zahra, an experience she says feels “both strange and natural.”
“It’s a really joyful experience to now be inside the work myself,” she said, “especially alongside this wonderful ensemble of talented, intelligent, thoughtful actors I get to work with.”
Shaffeeullah hopes audiences leave her play with a renewed sense of community with the world and the people inside it.
“I hope they leave with refreshed thought, feeling and perspective on how to stay present and connected,” she said, “to ourselves and each other, in an ever-changing world.”
