Brighton Fringe 2026
Scary Mary
Friday's Child Productions
Genre: Biography, Feminist Theatre, Historical, Musical Theatre, One Person Show, Theatrical Storytelling
Venue: The Actors - Theatre
Festival: Brighton Fringe
Low Down
A very funny, very gothic deep-dive into the life of the bold, talented, and spooky AF Mary Shelley. Scary Mary is here to drag her secrets out of the crypt and onto the stage. Find out if she really lost her virginity on her mother’s grave, how her smash-hit Frankenstein galvanised from winning Lord Byron’s Lake Geneva Summer of 1816 ghost-story contest, and exactly what is inside that heart-shaped box in her writing desk…
Review
A one woman goth extravaganza of feminism and the writing of Frankenstein, Gemma Everest has the energy to drive the narrative and the voice to belt out the songs. Her show delivers on all the descriptions that are in her blurb advertising the show in the BrightonFringe. She takes the stage with confidence and intermixes a witty and informative show with a post punk medley of original songs, I hesitate to say informative though because it sounds so grey and that’s one thing this show isn’t is grey – bright green and goth black with a very bright slash of dark lipstick maybe, but it does tell Mary Shelley’s story coherently and entertainingly. As should be, as Gemma is portraying the ghost of Mary Shelly herself and speaking with her voice – it’s a good device and the audience accepts the portrayal of Mary Shelley as a “Monster Mash-Up of Siouxsie Sioux and a Tim Burton leading lady” very happily
It’s a well structured hour with changes of pace and mood that catch the tenor of an amazing life history. There’s plenty of robust humour of course and Gemma performs this with relish with perfectly pitched and very loud shouts of “Spoiler Alert” – that’s when you know someone is going to die. Well it is a very gothy story. Gemma holds the audience’s attention with ease – I don’t think there was any flagging in her energetic and engaging performance. The fact that it was her first night made this very impressive.
There were various props that were folded into the performance – books that doubled as (Spoiler Alert!) gravestones, and Mary Shelly’s very own sketch book, well Gemma’s sketch book, where we were introduced to Percy Bysshe Shelly (reader, she married him as you probably all know). This was a very simple but very funny device that she used to illustrate not only Shelley but also sexual acts with said Shelley and a number of pregnancies – it was hilarious stuff.
Mary Shelley led an extraordinary life and Gemma carries the story well – the performance wasn’t all ribald fun and laughter and she brings across a portrait of a very resilient and talented woman very successfully. Sometimes, maybe, we could have done with a little more exploration of this around her, women like her sister and Shelley’s first wife (Spoiler Alert! They all die young). But maybe that is too much to ask to take the focus away from Mary Shelley as there is an awful lot to pack in and this show does want to get the story across.
The performance is punctuated with original songs that are performed with verve and gusto – Gemma has a strong voice and she’s not afraid to use it. The songs were great entertainment in their own right and were integral to the story being told.
Overall it was a terrific first night, full of energy and humour with a serious narrative running through it. One should not forget that when Frankenstein was first published she was not even allowed to publish under her own name and people assumed that Percy Bysshe Shelley was the author.
Lastly Mary Shelley died young at 53 years old, the modern scientific view being that she had an undiagnosed brain tumour. The show was also supporting The Brain Tumour Charity, and the audience was invited to contribute to the charity.
