BLOODY POETRY
I first read Bloody Poetry in 1990. As a 22-year-old the play gripped me immediately. It spoke of youth, idealism, and passion – all of those things that young men are supposed to feel! Seventeen years later, on the cusp of my 40s and finally having the opportunity to direct the play, some sort of stocktaking of a play I have admired for so many years is necessary.

At one point in the play, Shelley reads part of Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood to the others, and Byron pounces on it as a poem of defeat "aching with a middle-aged regret for the loss of youth’s fire". I wonder if Howard Brenton, looking back on his 1983 play, sees it as one of defeat for his protagonists.

Charting the loves and losses of the characters, one gets an impression of what it must have been like to try and live their Utopian philosophies in the teeth of a society that saw them at best as an exotic amusement and at worst as a threat to its very security. Imagine that: poets so dangerous that the British government found it necessary to condemn them and organise itself against them. Exiled, followed across Europe by newspaper reporters, spied on by thrill-seekers, tourists and government spies, Byron and ‘the Shelley menagerie’ must have found life very difficult despite their positions of privilege as a Lord and the son of a baronet, respectively.

And one must consider that it was easier for men to behave this way than women: society was on their side. Women couldn’t sue for divorce, they were expected to run the household, balance the books and childbirth was a dangerous thing in the 19th century. As the play shows, it is Mary, Claire, Harriet and their children that bear the brunt of running around Europe after these capricious poets. In military terms, in Shelley and Byron’s war against society, they were collateral damage.

Another irony of the play is that while advocating that all of society should be free, that the ‘Men of England’ should rise up against their masters, take control and let no one dictate to them, their position of privilege was supported by a succession of servants, maids, gardeners, boatmen, admirers and even physician / biographers like John William Polidori.

Brenton’s characterisation of Polidori is intriguing, if not strictly historically accurate. It is also very modern, allowing our 21st century audience a view into the 19th century world by speaking directly to them. Polidori develops from devoted, if suffering, acolyte to spite-driven tabloid journalist, snapping up gossip of the poets and disseminating it back home. This gives Bloody Poetry a real thrill, bringing the play bang into the present. For literary magazines, read Heat magazine!

To my mind, Byron, Shelley, Mary and Claire were the first modern ‘celebrities’ in the way they were reported upon, their conduct discussed, their clothes and looks copied – like rock stars, actors or, dare I say it, reality stars! And Polidori... the first paparazzo (appropriate, as his father was Italian!).

So what could they do, surrounded by opprobrium? As Shelley says, "Act, as if I were free. Write, as if I were free." But at what cost? As the play shows, to attempt to live this lifestyle in the 19th century resulted in ignominy, exile and death.

So to sum up, Bloody Poetry is still a play of commitment and passion in the face of opposition, of defiance and single-mindedness. However, it is also a play of sadness at the cost of what must be sacrificed for such ‘freedoms’.

HOWARD BRENTON
"I think the theatre’s a real bear pit. It’s not the place for reasoned discussion. It is the place for really savage insights."

Howard Brenton has written or co-written more than forty plays, including Christie in Love, Magnificence, Sore Throats, The Romans in Britain, Weapons of Happiness, Pravda (with David Hare), Greenland, Berlin Bertie, Paul and In Extremis. He is currently working on a four-part television drama about contemporary China for BBC2 and a new play for the National Theatre.

Reading more
I have been grateful to a number of biographers for giving the necessary historical and poetical background to the play. It has been amazing to read the sheer detail of writing that surrounds these characters and their lives. And it has been instructive to note where history and Brenton’s play diverge! I would recommend these to anyone seeking further information:

Shelley: The Pursuit by Richard Holmes; Mary Shelley by Miranda Seymour; The Godwins and The Shelleys by William St Clair; Byron: Life and Legend by Fiona MacCarthy; A Single Summer with L.B. by Derek Marlowe.

POEMS QUOTED IN THE PLAY
Percy Bysshe Shelley: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni, England in 1819, To the Men of England, Ode to Heaven, On Death, The Revolt of Islam (Cantos II, X), Queen Mab, Julian and Maddalo, The Mask of Anarchy, The Fugitives, Prometheus Unbound, To Constantia, Singing.

William Wordsworth: Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Christabel.

MUSIC IN BLOODY POETRY
For those of you expecting to hear some pleasant 19th-century classical or folk music between scenes, tonight’s soundtrack may be a bit of a surprise. We’ve tried to give a selection of music and sounds that are emotionally appropriate to the show and yet also touch base with today. The music used in tonight’s show includes:

Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Pink Floyd; Rebel Rebel David Bowie; Fruit Tree, Nick Drake; Roads, Portishead; Lust For Life, Iggy Pop; Gorecki, Lamb; Spanish Castles In Space, The Orb; Love Will Tear Us Apart, Susanna and the Magical Orchestra; Dead Queens, Espers; Terrific Speech, Mogwai; Sunrise, Pulp

John McSpadyen