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How Do I Love Thee?<\/p>\nThe Camden Fringe festival, established in 2006 was set up as an alternative to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for London\u2019s pub-theatre scene. It offers performers the chance to \u201ctry out new material and different ideas in a supportive setting with less time and financial commitments\u201d. This new play written, directed, produced and performed by teenager Ruby Thomas is a testament to this ethos. Accompanied by four young actors who met through school productions, Thomas has created theatre company, Aside Hustle, to share their \u201cpassion for storytelling, creativity and the arts.\u201d How Do I Love Thee? is their debut production.<\/p>\n
How Do I Love Thee?<\/p>\n
The play is based on the life of the English poet Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, documenting her relationship with Robert Browning, and including flashbacks to her childhood illness, her social campaigning and support for Mary Wollstonecraft\u2019s A Vindication on the Rights of Woman. \u00a0We also see her subsequent success which included a nomination for poet laureate and becoming an inspiration to the likes of Emily Dickinson. There is a great deal being squeezed into this 60\u2011minute production.<\/p>\n
Thomas has used Barret-Browning\u2019s own words as much as possible, but it is striking how little poetry finds its way onto the stage and the absence feels like a missed opportunity. Instead, we have an almost epistolatory play based on Barret Browning\u2019s correspondence with future husband Robert Browning and her friend Mary Mitford. There is a lot of repetition here with the writing, folding and unfolding of letters and it becomes laboured \u2013 in one over-extended sequence, Elizabeth and Robert write and exchange letters in total silence for what seems like ten minutes. Less can be more, and this portion should have been curtailed to help move the plot along with greater clarity and pace.<\/p>\n
There are other problems with the play, too. In the opening sequence, the audio of a train in motion overwhelms the dialogue, leaving much of the character\u2019s exchange lost beneath the noise.\u00a0 Lawrence Lingard as a rather saintly Robert Browning spoke far too quietly and needs to work on his vocal projection if he is serious about a career on the stage.<\/p>\n
The use of props, chiefly suitcases, shoeboxes full of letters and two stools, shows some ingenuity, but is ultimately over\u2011relied upon. The two stools, each dressed with different seating pads to signal shifts in time and place, form a clever visual device at first; however, the repetition dulls the impact. What begins as a neat piece of stagecraft gradually feels overplayed, with the idea stretched further than it can sustain.<\/p>\n
The determination to show Barrett-Browning\u2019s story from start to finish, means a lot is thrown in and some elements simply flick by. Despite this, there is beauty and undeniable elegance in the writing. There is undoubtedly a feminist message to the play, but also an exploration of freedom and (ironically, perhaps) the inability of words to truly convey feelings. I was also struck by the clever choreography and physical movements of the characters which kept the piece from becoming too static.<\/p>\n
Thomas is a very talented young woman and the standout star of the show. This is clearly a labour of love for her. It\u2019s remarkable to see someone of her age deliver work of this calibre. Unfortunately, the remaining performers \u2013 Lingard, Daniel Fielding, Eva Vesela and Fran Bevan, while giving spirited performances, did not convey the conviction, passion or emotional range the piece demands. The cast are undeniably young, barely out of school, and it is hard to escape the sense that a more seasoned ensemble might have brought additional depth and structural weight to the production.<\/p>\n
This production ultimately feels like a work in progress: a piece with clear potential that hasn\u2019t yet fully settled into its shape. It would benefit from some tightening up and the firm hand of an experienced director. Even so, the achievement of the five young performers at its centre deserves genuine recognition. They carry the material with commitment and ambition, and their willingness to take on a play of this scale is commendable. I\u2019m not sure how many of us could have achieved what they manage at their age.<\/p>\n
The Camden Fringe thrives on diversity, showcasing all kinds of work from artists at all stages of their career. It\u2019s heartening to see that breadth reflected here in the emergence of new talent.<\/p>\n
Review by Fiona Gilbert<\/p>\n
This production tells the story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning: 19th century poet, trailblazer, and the first woman ever nominated for Poet Laureate. It follows her journey from London to Italy, the journey that gave her the freedom to write, to love, and to become who she truly was \u2013 against a controlling father, a debilitating illness, and a literary world dominated by men.<\/p>\n
Drawing on Browning\u2019s own poetry and her remarkable letters with Robert Browning, the production blends physical theatre with naturalistic storytelling to bring 19th century England and Italy to life, while exploring themes that feel urgently relevant today: identity, female empowerment, and the courage to be true to yourself.<\/p>\n