AFTER a successful year of performances, The Lind Theatre is launching into 2025 with Mary Shelley by Helen Edmundson. This compelling play explores a crucial episode in Mary Shelley’s early life—her meeting and scandalous elopement at age 16 with Percy Bysshe Shelley—and the resulting impact on her sisters, her stepmother, and her father, political philosopher William Godwin. Mary Shelley, the 18-year-old daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, drew inspiration for Frankenstein during a stormy afternoon in 1816 when she and her companions, including Lord Byron, were confined indoors.

They passed the time by telling ghost stories and holding a competition to write their own. Her novel, considered by many to be the first modern science-fiction story, was published anonymously in 1818. Shelley also edited and promoted the works of her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Directed by Judith Boyd—who previously led Educating Rita— Mary Shelley will run at The Lind Theatre, 16 Mitchell St, Nambour, from 14–22 February. It was first staged in March 2012. • Bookings: lindlane.com.au/ whats-on or phone 1300 732 764.