29 October, 7:00pm

Dead Poets Live: Byron and Shelley

Following three sell-out shows, Dead Poets Live returns to the Print Room with two icons of English poetry: Byron and Shelley with Jason Isaacs as George Gordon Byron and Freddie Fox as Percy Bysshe Shelley.

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824), known to history as Lord Byron, was the most fascinating and outrageous figure of his age. A man of causes and appetites, he led a life of adventure, passion, hazard, decadence and excess – a life reflected in his poetry, which ranges from London to Venice to Constantinople, from the cloister to the seraglio, from tender love-lyrics like ‘She Walks in Beauty’ to the uproarious comic masterpiece Don Juan.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) was a radical thinker and a poet of ideals. Several of his best-known poems – ‘Ode to the West Wind’, ‘To a Skylark’ – are addressed to nature. But he is famous as a champion of humanity – a believer in mankind’s innate capacity for good, independent of deity or monarchy – beliefs immortalised in poems like The Mask of Anarchy. His own life, by contrast, was messy and tragic. Like Byron, he became estranged from English society, and lived in exile on the Continent, where in 1816 the two poets first met.

They soon became friends – a friendship as unlikely as their tastes and beliefs were opposite. This is the story of two Romantics stars, by turns racy, hilarious, tempestuous, tragic, and the years of exile – the final years – that bore witness to their finest poetry.

Jason Isaacs
Jason Isaacs is a star of the English and American screen, currently Marshal Zhukov in Armando Ianucci’s The Death of Stalin, known to viewers as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, Dr Hap Percy in the hit Netflix series, The OA, Captain Hook in Peter Pan, Colonel William Tavington in The Patriot and Captain Gabriel Lorca in Star Trek: Discovery. Other credits include: Entourage; Black Hawk Down; Green Zone; Case Histories (BBC); A Cure for Wellness; Civvies; and Friends With Money.

Freddie Fox
This year Freddie Fox reprised his role in Tom Stoppard’s Travesties at the Apollo Theatre in the West End directed by Patrick Barber, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the 2017 Olivier Awards. He played ‘Romeo’ in August 2016 opposite Lily James, directed by Kenneth Branagh. In 2013 Freddie starred opposite Rupert Everett in the West End acclaimed production of David Hare’s The Judas Kiss. His other theatre credits include: Hay Fever directed by Howard Davies, Cause Celebre directed by Thea Sharrock and A Flea in Her Ear directed by Richard Eyre (Old Vic).

Film credits include Pride,The Riot Club as well as, forthcoming, Black 47 and Guy Ritchie’s latest film, Knights of The Roundtable: King Arthur, in which he stars opposite Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law and Eric Bana.

On television screens Freddie has been seen most recently starring in Russell T Davies’ hit Channel 4 drama series Cucumber, as well as its companion series Banana in 2015. His other television credits include: the title role in the BBC Dickens adaptation The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Shadow Line, Any Human Heart, and Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of Parade’s End.

Tickets: £17 – 25

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