Writer bids for monster hits with two plays on one stage

While written by the same hand, the next two plays to take to the stages of West Yorkshire Playhouse couldn’t be more different. One is based on a much loved children’s book. The other is the story of the woman who created one of horrors most iconic figures.

Helen Edmundson will dominate the Leeds theatre this coming month with her adaptation of Swallows and Amazons and an original piece about Frankenstein author, Mary Shelley,

“I didn’t even realise until last week that the plays were on at the same time because Swallows and Amazons is touring at the moment, but when I found out, I couldn’t believe it.

“As Mary Shelley is aimed more towards adults and Swallows and Amazons is a feelgood, children’s show, they will attract completely different audiences,” says Edmundson.

Originally from Chester, Edmundson grew up visiting Theatre Clywdd. She went on to study drama at the University of Manchester where she developed her acting and writing skills.

Helen says: “I have written plays since primary school where I used to beg my teachers to let me put them on, and at university I knew I wanted to do something in theatre.

“When I left university I mainly wrote songs and comedy sketches. After that I really found my feet and continued acting and writing but soon enough, writing took over.”

Mary Shelley is co-produced by West Yorkshire Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse and theatre company, Shared Experience.

Edmundson says: “I have worked with Shared Experience for 20 years on and off, so I know them very well and feel that I know their strengths and I know what they can achieve. I can tailor my writing to them.”

Swallows and Amazons is directed by Tom Morris, director of West End hit War Horse, and features songs written by Divine Comedy’s Irish front man Neil Hannon.

“Writing anything with music is always really different as you have to blend two things together. Tom, Neil and I worked really well together as a threesome,” says Edmundson.

The true-story of Mary Shelley is a shocking one about a young girl, and the heartache that she went through when, at the age of 16, she eloped with a married poet.

Edmundson says: “Polly Teale, who is directing the play originally came to me and asked if I knew of Mary Shelley. I recognised the name but didn’t know much about her apart from that she had married Percy Bysshe Shelley and that she had written Frankenstein. I found it hard to decided what to focus the story on as there are already a number of plays that have been written about her. I found her relationship with her parents really interesting so I focused on that.

“I was shocked by the amount of heartache and the amount of people around Mary and Percy that were hurt because of their relationship. It’s remarkable how Mary was so young and dealing with so much.

“I have a daughter of my own who is nearly 16 and the fact Mary was going through pregnancy and miscarriages at that age, it’s hard to imagine how she could cope.”

Edmundson said when she started researching, she went to an exhibition about Mary and Percy Shelley in Oxford with Polly Teale. She says: “We went to a series of lectures about the exhibition and that’s where I met Dr Mark Philp who is an expert on William Godwin, Mary’s father. He was enormously helpful on the history of the family and recommended countless books that helped me to write the play.”

Horror created at the age of 21

Shelley finished writing Frankenstein when she was 21 and the first edition of the book was published anonymously in 1818.

Swallows and Amazons, written by Arthur Ransome in 1930, was inspired after the author spent a summer teaching his friend’s children how to sail.

Edmundson’s first play was Flying and was produced at the National Theatre in 1990. She went on to have her plays put on at the Bush Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith and the Royal Court Theatre and has won numerous awards, including the John Whiting Award and three Time Out awards.

Mary Shelley (March 16 to April 7) and Sallows and Amazons (March 20 to 24) are at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds ( 0113 213 7700). Swallows and Amazons is at Sheffield’s Lyceum from April 10 to 14, (0114 249 6000).