August 1873, Brussels: Paul Verlaine is sentenced to two years in prison for shooting Arthur Rimbaud. His homosexuality is cited as an aggravating factor. He will spend 555 days incarcerated in Mons.

Verlaine in Prison delves into the heart of this decisive period, when the “cursed poet,” broken by violence and abandonment, rediscovers the faith of his childhood and composes some of the texts that would form the basis of *Sagesse*, *Jadis et Naguère*, and *Parallèlement*.

Written and performed by Belgian countertenor Logan Lopez Gonzalez, in collaboration with director Eleanor Burke, the show presents Verlaine in his own words: letters to Rimbaud, excerpts from *Mes prisons*, and autobiographical fragments. His poems resonate through the melodies of Gabriel Fauré, Reynaldo Hahn, Claude Debussy, Léo Ferré, and Edgard Varèse.

Accompanied by pianist Stella Marie Lorenz and soprano Anna Sideris, Logan Lopez Gonzalez embodies a fragile yet incandescent Verlaine. More than a biographical portrait, Verlaine en prison is a sensitive immersion into the soul of a poet. Through chiaroscuro and musicality, it reveals the power of words that, even when imprisoned, remain irreducibly free.