MARY Shelley, the engrossing new play by acclaimed theatre company Shared Experience, is at the Theatre Royal Winchester from Wednesday to Saturday.
The play tells the remarkable story of the events and circumstances that led to Mary writing Frankenstein when she was just 18.
Written by award-winning playwright Helen Edmundson, the play delves into Mary’s turbulent personal history and reveals insights into the life of the author of a novel so radical it changed the literary landscape forever.
Having lost her mother, feminist Mary Woolstonecraft, at an early age, Mary finds comfort in reading the family memoir written by her father, the radical philosopher William Godwin. His account of her mother’s suicide attempt, extra-marital affair and birth of her illegitimate elder daughter are regarded as shocking.
Mary is herself drawn into scandal when she falls in love with Percy Bysshe Shelley, a married poet, and elopes at 16.
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