The early years of the 19th century were a dangerous time for a radical. Those who argued for democracy or social change faced heavy surveillance, physical violence and prison.
Richard Bradbury’s play Regarding Shelley lets us glimpse, with a confident cast, what happens when the poet and essayist Percy Bysshe Shelley falls foul of the oppressive state.
It opens with his friend Dan (Charlie Maguire) urging him to leave Ireland, where he supported the local rebellion. He and his wife Harriet (Ella Dorman-Gajic) move to Devon for safety, though Harriet argues that they would be wiser to move to mainland Europe.
Unfortunately, the dramatic promising opening to the show is followed by what feels like a collection of fragments that lack a focus.
This is certainly the case with the regular monologues of the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth (Charlie Coldfield), projected onto the screen above the back of the stage. Although he mentions arranging for people to keep a watch on Shelly (Aiden Casey), he also talks about stuff that doesn’t seem to have any obvious relevance, such as the assassination of the Prime Minister and his admission that he is an aspiring biographer.
Much of what we see consists of Shelly’s wife Harriet sitting on one side of the stage reading what she is writing to her sister while Shelly stands on the other side speculating on what he might write.
The arrival of the friend Elizabeth Hitchener (Moureen Casey) prompts some mildly interesting discussions about the tendency to use the male pronoun for speeches and writing, about people who are women as well as men, but it doesn't seem to progress the story anywhere.
In a later curious scene, perhaps meant as a metaphor for the futility of their life, the group prepare to throw lots of empty bottles with a message sticking out of the top into the sea, despite the certainty that they will fill with water and sink, with the paper messages disintegrating.
Shelly would make a good drama, but this play lacks a clear storyline or any dramatic tension and has very little character development.