"Mary Shelley" by Helen Edmundson.

Lace Market Theatre.

"Mary Shelley" concentrates on the early years of Mary Shelley’s life. At just sixteen she meets the married poet Percy Bysse Shelley. They then elope to France and later relocate to Lake Geneva to spend time with the bohemian Lord Byron. The play also covers her writing of one of the greatest Gothic novels in the English language. All of this by the age of just 19! Mary Shelley will always be primarily remembered as the author of "Frankenstein"; or, "The Modern Prometheus". 

She was the daughter of the now celebrated free thinker and feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft (who died soon after giving birth to her daughter Mary) and William Godwin, a radical anarchist philosopher and writer, who was burdened by huge debts. Totally opposed to the relationship forged with Shelley, which is the reason for the elopement, the story undoubtedly explains why Mary Shelley came to be so headstrong and live a remarkable and unconventional life that would raise eyebrows even by today's standards. 

The play also gives insight into how the influences of her Mother and Father’s writings lead her to conceive the story of "Frankenstein", although the play only mentions the novel in passing and does not play a big part in this story.

This is a different kind of horror story where the passion of a deep love affair and the meeting of two free minds lead to the destruction of their families and grief. It’s not all doom and gloom though, there are moments of humour and displays of affection within the family. 

Mary Shelley is played by Lucie Conroy, wonderfully headstrong and portrayed with great passion. She brings out the ravenous hunger for knowledge about literature as well as details of her birth Mother from her Father's body of literal work in the shape of diaries and letters that have been printed.

Aaron Connelly plays Percy Shelley. As we go through the play we discover that Shelley is a cad and a bounder, especially where women are concerned. I have always known that poets are passionate artists, and Aaron's depiction of this great poet shows immense passion for his work.

Francesca Short is Fanny Imlay, the illegitimate daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft. Fanny was the go between her family and Mary and Percy when relationships between the two families were strained. Unfortunately, this, and what we already know about Fanny regarding her depression, something that her mother suffered with, could well have been the cause for her sad actions later in the play. Played with lovely restraint by Francesca.

Jane Clairmont, Mary's sister, is played by Lowenna Quantick. This woman is in complete contrast to her step siblings by having an almost devil may care energy, almost childlike, and it was fun to watch Lowenna play Jane, who also went under the name of Claire - because she deemed it to sound more romantic. Jane is just as much of a rebel as Mary though, especially for the 1800's, when she falls pregnant with Lord Byron's baby out of wedlock!

Malcolm Todd plays William Godwin. Malcolm simmers to start with but as the pressure of debt and his daughter's rebellion take hold, you see that pressure cooker start to boil over and explode. Godwin is a proud man but has to do something to save his business and his family, realising that he as to reluctantly take offers of help from Shelley, also resulting in a U Turn where his feelings for Mary are concerned. Malcolm always gives a sterling performance and this wonderful character driven role is an example of his wonderful acting skills.

Mrs Godwin is played by Dawn Gutteridge. Mrs Godwin is a hard character; well, she is always playing second best to Mary Wollstonecraft, so you can understand that need to stamp her authority on the family and standing up for herself, but she comes across as not the nicest of characters. It takes a really good actor to evoke feelings from an audience where a character is concerned, and Dawn certainly does that. There's one section in the first act where she tells an angry Mary that she is not going to flounce out of the room, because she was, and did. This of course shows a level of authority on the recently returned daughter, attempting to put Mary in her place in Mrs Godwin's role of the Stepmother! Wonderfully feisty.

Laura Sherratt is Harriet Shelley, Percy's wife, who has been brought in to advise Mary of what Shelley is really like; a serial philanderer. Laura also doubles up as the Maid.

Directed by Clare Choubey, this is a very classy period piece of theatre. I hadn't read the book and I have not seen the film version, so this was my first time discovering the life of Mary Shelley. If only history lessons had been as captivating as this production, I may have taken more notice in my history lessons at school. I was like a vacuum cleaner, sucking in every detail of this play, and loving every morsel.

Chris Collins' set design is also very classy with the furnishings, a very business like desk, bookcase, bust and artwork. Team these with some era appropriate looking props and the whole set just transports you back to what you'd imagine their home would look like.

Nick Gale's lighting design created, at times, a dark and almost gothic feel with plenty of shadows. At other times, nice and bright, contrasting between the feel of the story and scenes.

Sound design is by Darren Coxon. I did feel that some of the sound effects weren't really needed. These were mainly the sound of horses clip clopping on cobbled streets to indicate that we were back in town and not in another country; I think the story telling distinguished really well where the scenes were set. That said, there were sections where distanced effects, like the rapping on the door and the shouting was appropriately distanced, making us believe the distance was not just in the wings but was actually further away, creating a lovely realism and depth. 

This play was an education for me, as well as being incredibly entertaining. Some of the scenes were very quick to change and seemed to be a tad rushed, like the scene where Mary Shelley lost her first baby, and then practically straight away, her next baby was born and in the cot. I did say that Mary Shelley led an extremely eventful life and there's a lot to show, and I suppose if every thing was played out slower, the play would last for a lot longer than the two and three quarter hours it did. That may seem long, but it flew by for me due to the play being so engrossing, and was surprised when the final bows came around.

"Mary Shelley" is at the Nottingham Lace Market Theatre until Saturday 2 November.