Playwright Howard Brenton makes a rare public appearance tonight at Keble College’s O’Reilly Theatre before a performance of his Bloody Poetry by student group Heart Sleeve Productions. The title of his talk, Lies, Damn Lies and History Plays, suggests an insightful analysis of his craft is in store.

Bloody Poetry, dating from 1984 and heard recently on BBC Radio 4, concerns two of our greatest Romantic poets and their partners. As the company’s come-on publicity puts it: “Byron, Shelley, Mary Shelley and Claire Clairmont spent one summer writing together, drinking together, sleeping together. For several years, the incestuous foursome thrilled and horrified the English aristocracy. But eventually, their decadent lifestyles began to destroy them.”

Covering the period in which Byron wrote his masterpiece Don Juan and Mary Shelley conceived the idea for Frankenstein, the play offers thoughts, too, on the creative process and the impact of the writers’ headlong pursuit of freedom on other people’s lives. Director James Fennemore said: “Brenton’s main purpose was to celebrate them. People coming to see the play will, I hope, enjoy being able to put a human face to writers they might know only from their work.”

Tim Schneider, who plays Shelley, said: “We see the collateral damage of the poets’ lifestyle. “We’re always aware of how awful they were, but I won’t be presenting someone who was just an arse.”

Bloody Poetry, which completes its run on Saturday, is followed on stage – this time at Oxford Playhouse – by another take on tangled relationships. Stephen Sondheim’s acclaimed A Little Night Music is by student company Nightingale Productions. Based on a film by Ingmar Bergman, the musical focuses on esteemed lawyer Fredrik Egerman who, frustrated by his unconsummated marriage to his young wife Anne, turns once more to his former flame, the actress Desiree. When she invites the couple to her estate, what begins as a pleasant weekend in the country quickly descends into courteous chaos with duelling pistols.

Filling the key position of musical director on the production, in charge of a 25-strong orchestra, is Jonathan Soman, a third-year student at Lady Margaret Hall and former member of the acapella singing group Out of the Blue, who built up a keen following on Britain’s Got Talent.

He says: ”We see a group of people who start out with the wrong partners and end up with the right ones. When we were deciding on a musical we were attracted by the characters and also by the music. There are vibrant, clever songs. Some are sad and sombre [like the best-known Send in the Clowns] and some just the opposite.”

“The show is going to be good. We have had a creative rehearsal process, with lots of improvisation, imagination and emotion.”