Details

One of the greatest love stories of English literature. The beautiful invalid Elizabeth Barrett lives under the despotic rule of her Victorian father Edward Moulton Barrett. Her one great passion and means of escape is writing poetry, to which she devotes a large part of her days. Then she makes the acquaintance of dashing fellow poet Robert Browning, who literally sweeps her off her feet. Robert asks for Elizabeth's hand in marriage, but Edward refuses to allow it. Elizabeth must battle her father for the right to live her own life. The scene is set for a titanic struggle for the hearts and minds of England's greatest poets.... Part passionate love story, part a struggle for the heart and mind of one of England's leading female poets, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, in the hands of Trestle, becomes an off beat and haunting production about an insular family slowly falling apart. The relationship between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning gave rise to some of the great poetry of the Victorian era. But the recent discovery of letters and diaries, together with Margaret Forster's biography of Elizabeth, has expanded and contradicted the conventional view of her character and her relationships with her domineering father and her passionate lover. Trestle's interpretation of Besier's play is both radical and highly theatrical, building on the text with layers of imagery and narrative gleaned from the biography. Developed over months of workshops with a new ensemble of actors, the production combines an emotionally charged and physical style of acting with the use of masks and music.

Creatives/Company

Author: Rudolph Besier
Company: Trestle Theatre Company