[8] Patricia Hooker says the friendship of the two men always fascinated her (in 1962 she wrote an episode of a radio show, Poets Corner which focused on Rimbaud[9]), but originally felt it would be necessary to study in France to achieve an authentic background.
However she then worked on Concord of Sweet Sounds with Henri Safran, a director originally from France, who became interested in her idea of a play about Rimbaud.
I can only assume the script got past the censor because it was (a) based on real people of historical importance, (b) set in the previous century, making the subject matter less scary, (c) concerned French poets, who no one expects to behave well, so it’s not shocking when they don’t, (d) a story that ends in tragedy and misery, so while the leads may be gay they’re never happy, and (e) treated with tact and taste, for all the absinthe drinking (an unworldly person could watch it and think Rimbaud and Verlaine were just good friends).
He added "if the play was a gallant but incomplete effort, its production by Henri Safran was beautifully assured and sensitive, its camera work expert, while an excellent cast was headed by the impressive performances of Alastair Duncan as Verlaine and Alan Bickford as Rimbaud.
"[17] The Bulletin said "Hooker’s script was essentially a duologue with vignettes, and, although too episodic and uneven in its construction and development, incorporated the visions and images of the poet into the context of the relationship with considerable success only occasionally did Rimbaud step out of the play and declaim.
He suggested the deliberately underwritten homosexual tensions by inference rather than by presentation, and he evoked the claustrophobic relationship by isolating the two poets in tight two-shots.
"[18] The Canberra Times said the play "in writing, acting, direction, design and technical production would rank well above par for the course in any country in the world.
The opening, highly dramatic scenes of the play which Duncan shared with the beautiful Anne Haddy, created such excitement that the viewer readily forgave some later exaggerations... Miss Hooker's play is terribly weak on dialogue, but has enough dramatic design to have allowed director Henri Safran's imaginative cutting, clever atmospheric use of lighting and off beat camera-work to make this one of the best productions seen from one of our best producers.
[13]The Sunday Telegraph said it was a "sensitive production... but the subject was formidably testing for living room audiences... its gloomy, unsavory theme probably chased most uncommitted viewers away after the first fifteen minutes.