Synopsis

Paris, 1871. A world on the brink of artistic revolution, where the stifling conventions of the past clash with a dangerous new vision of poetry and life.

Total Eclipse chronicles the tumultuous relationship between the established poet Paul Verlaine and the teenage prodigy Arthur Rimbaud. As Verlaine struggles with his bourgeois existence and crumbling marriage to Mathilde, he becomes intoxicated by Rimbaud’s raw talent and anarchic spirit. Their passionate, destructive affair takes them from the drawing rooms of Paris to the slums of London, leaving a trail of scandalised contemporaries in their wake.

Hampton’s writing vividly capture the artistic ferment of 19th-century France and the revolutionary power of Rimbaud’s poetry. As the two men push each other to new creative heights and personal lows, the play explores themes of genius, sexuality, and the price of artistic freedom. Total Eclipse asks: in the pursuit of a new vision, how much of ourselves – and others – are we willing to destroy?