Bloody Poetry

Synopsis

On the shores of Lake Geneva in 1816, two of England’s leading Romantic poets meet for the first time. Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, along with Mary Shelley and her half-sister Claire Clairmont, form an uneasy circle of friendship, shielding themselves from an English society more interested in their unorthodox sexual liaisons than their poetry. The personal and the political collide as the foursome struggle to define who they are to each other and to a public who condemn their private lives whilst celebrating their work.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 6 February 2012

It is strange how fringe theatre is cannibalising its own distant past at the moment, as if to validate an uncertain status and establish a canon for future reference, even aspiration, perhaps.

Howard Brenton’s 1984 trenchant, vivid study of Shelley and Byron arguing the toss about life, love and poetry with their radical concubines, Claire Clairemont and Mary Shelley (née Godwin), comes up a treat in Tom Littler’s sharp revival in the little Jermyn Street back parlour.

Originally, Brenton’s play – written for Foco Novo, an early Arts Council corpse, and revived at the Royal Court with Mark Rylance as Shelley– was a plangent postscript to failed relationships and a blueprint for new radicalism in the Thatcher years. There’s even a sardonic reference to the Arts Council’s “glory of the garden” report.

Now, the play jumps at you both in its attempt to define what poetry itself mig...

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Latest User Review

George Powell - 6 February 2012:

This is a fine revival, and I highly recommend it. David Sturzacker is mesmerising as Byron, and there are also terrific, energetic performances from Joanna Christie and Joe Bannister in particular. Emily Glenister manages to shine in a small role, and clearly has a bright future ahead of her. I was slightly less convinced by Rhiannon Sommers, who needs to find a bit more variety and lightness in her performance as Mary Shelley, but perhaps she is simply outshone by outstanding actors in the rest of the cast. The design and costumes are beautiful too - a really fine production that shows how strong Jermyn Street Theatre is at the moment. It really does seem to be a bit of a mini-Donmar!...

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