About the Play:

The Barretts of Wimpole Street is a full-length romantic comedy by Rudolf Besier. The love story of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning is well-known, and their relationship is known as history's most famous literary marriage. The Barretts of Wimpole Street takes us into the historic meeting and romance between the two great 19th century English poets, despite her mysterious illness and tyrannical father.

The Barretts of Wimpole Street is one of the most famous plays of the modern theatre. The setting is 1845, and the scene is Elizabeth Barrett's room. Here she lives with her father, sisters and brothers. Never too healthy, Elizabeth is an invalid after suffering a riding accident which, it was said, injured her spine. She has been kept prisoner by her domineering father, whose tyrannical attitude to his children seems to ruin any chance of happiness. Her brothers and sisters are reconciled to their father's tyranny, but Elizabeth has in her a spark of rebellion. From her sofa she has corresponded with many of the great literary figures of the day and written poetry, which has been acclaimed as great. This is set off by the romantic young Robert Browning, who has known her through her poetry, bursts upon the Barrett household and in the first scene with Elizabeth proclaims his deep love for her. When Elizabeth realizes that she is attracted to the young poet, the world becomes a different place. She sees that her father's solicitude is mere selfishness and that she need not look forward to an invalid's life, deprived of all natural love and happiness. Robert inspires her with a desire to get away. They wish to marry, but their greatest obstacle is not Elizabeth's health but her father. He tries to keep her with him, but nothing prevails, and the lovers leave Wimpole Street to embark on their life together. The Barretts of Wimpole Street, takes us into the historic meeting and romance between two great minds... Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning.

The Barretts of Wimpole Street premiered in 1930 at the Malvern Hills Playhouse during the Malvern Festival in Worcestershire, England, and transferred to the Queen's Theatre in London. It then went to Broadway, where it opened in 1931 at the Empire Theatre. It was revived there in 1934 and 1945 and has spawned three films and seven TV dramas.

Cast: 5 female, 12 male (All but one of the female are young, 9 of the male are young and 5 play very small parts)

About the Playwright:

Rudolf Besier (1878-1942) was a Dutch-English dramatist and translator, who is best known for his play The Barretts of Wimpole Street, based on Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning's courtship Born in Blitar, East Java (Dutch East Indies), as the son of an English mother and the Dutch soldier. He attended Elizabeth College, Guernsey, and the University of Heidelberg.