A fierce feminist fable

Monstrous Bodies at Dundee Rep is a play with a female twist.

It’s 1812 and the UK is coming apart at the seams. War, poverty and riots make it a dangerous place for a young girl.

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is 14 and hasn’t met the man who will make her Mary Shelley yet.

After a furious row with her stepmother she is sent away from home, alone, into the care of the rich and radical Baxter family of Dundee.

But her genius for finding trouble pitches her into a world of politicians and revolutionaries, American fugitives and the ladies of the Glassite Church Floral Tea Committee.

In 2017, Roxanne had so much studying to do for school she nearly didn’t go to the party on Peep O’Day Lane. But everyone needs a night off. She doesn’t mean to crash out but when someone takes a topless photo of her, Roxanne’s life as she knows it is over.

Monstrous Bodies is an empowering play set in Dundee which takes you on a journey lived through the experiences of two young girls, while the rights and realities of those approaching womanhood criss-cross through the centuries.

As Mary Shelley introduction to Frankenstein in 1831 said: “On the northern shores of the Tay, near Dundee.. the airy flights of my imagination, were born.”

The play is written and directed by Sandy Thomson, who was last at the Rep Theatre with Address to a Liar.

To book tickets, ring 01382 223530 or visit www.dundeerep.co.uk

Monstrous Bodies tells the story of two women from very different times in history.