Bloody Poetry is a 1984 play by Howard Brenton centring on the lives of Percy Shelley and his circle.
The play had its roots in Brenton's involvement with the small touring company Foco Novo and was the third, and final, show he wrote for them.
The initial idea was that Brenton should write a piece based on the life of Shelley, though Brenton was more interested in looking, not at the individual, but at the quartet of Percy, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and Byron's mistress Claire Clairmont, tying it in with Utopian themes appropriate to the revolutionary spirit of the protagonists.
The director was Roland Rees and the cast was: Percy Bysshe Shelley – Valentine PelkaMary Shelley – Fiona ShawClaire Clairmont – Jane GurnettGeorge Byron – James AubreyDr William Polidori – William GaminaraHarriet Westbrook – Sue Burton The play had its west coast premiere in 1991 at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills, under the direction of Keith Fowler, drawing excellent critical reception and winning the Dramalogue award for “Outstanding Direction.” Nightingale Theatre produced the play in the summer of 1994 at The Union Chapel, Islington, London.
[4] The play was staged by emerging company Invulnerable Nothings at The Brooklyn Art Library in 2016.