Camden Fringe: Ruby Thomas on Bringing Elizabeth Barrett Browning to the Stage

Ahead of Aside Hustle’s Camden Fringe debut, Ruby Thomas talks physical theatre, letters and the woman behind the poem

Most people know the line: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Fewer know the woman behind it.

How Do I Love Thee? tells the story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning: nineteenth century poet, campaigner 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, against a controlling father, a debilitating illness and a literary world dominated by men. Drawing on Browning’s own poetry and her correspondence with Robert Browning, the production blends physical theatre with naturalistic storytelling to bring nineteenth century England and Italy to life, while exploring themes that feel just as relevant today: identity, female empowerment and the courage to be true to yourself.

The production comes from Aside Hustle, a new theatre company formed by five recent school leavers, making their public debut at this year’s festival. Ahead of the show, Red Bus Londinium spoke to company member Ruby Thomas about breaking naturalism down into movement, working with Elizabeth’s own letters and poems, and why this was the story Aside Hustle wanted to tell first.

Red Bus: The pitch mentions blending physical theatre with naturalistic storytelling. Can you say a little about how those two approaches sit alongside each other in practice? Are there particular moments where the physical work carries the story in a way that words couldn’t?

Ruby Thomas: The two approaches flow into one another, with scenes evolving from naturalism to physical theatre. The scenes tend to start with naturalism, a place the audience is comfortable with; then, gradually, the boundaries of that naturalistic world begin to break down. A new world is created in which the emotions and experiences of the characters are viscerally expressed through movement. We intend for this to be symbolic of how Elizabeth used poetry to break boundaries and find freedom, creating a new world for herself.

Our use of physical theatre was inspired by Elizabeth’s poem Insufficiency, in which she reflects on the limitation of words to fully express an emotion or “inward thought”. Therefore, we turned to movement when we felt the characters’ emotions could not be conveyed with just words.

Pina Bausch also inspired our use of physical theatre. She explains that the reason her performances are movement based is because words can only explain part of how something feels, whereas movement can extend beyond verbal communication and express the complexity of the human experience. This idea deeply resonated with us. Therefore, in our production, we use movement to create certain atmospheres or to viscerally convey a character’s emotions, with the intention of the audience feeling and connecting with the character’s experience.

Physical theatre is also used to convey the passage of time and the demanding physical journey of Elizabeth and Robert from London to Italy. Rather than simply telling the audience that they travelled across Europe, we wanted them to experience something of the scale and difficulty of that journey through movement. It became both a literal journey and a metaphor for her transformation.

Naturalistic storytelling grounds the play in reality, constantly reminding the audience that Elizabeth’s extraordinary story is also a true one. We aim for this to encourage greater reflection in the audience long after the performance has ended. The use of both approaches also allows us to create contrast: in moments of physical theatre there is no dialogue, which draws focus to the movement and, in turn, adds greater emphasis to the words that are spoken. As language and poetry are central to our production, making each word significant is crucial.

Red Bus: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poetry is the beating heart of this production. Were there particular poems or letters that shaped how you understood her, or that you kept returning to during the making of the show?

Ruby Thomas: Elizabeth’s poetry and letters were invaluable throughout the creative process. They didn’t just inspire the play; they shaped the way we understood her as a person.

The play is named after her most famous poem, How Do I Love Thee? We chose this title because so many people know Elizabeth Barrett Browning for a love poem and not for her extraordinary life. While the poem is a beautiful expression of her devotion to Robert, we wanted to highlight that there is so much more to her legacy. Elizabeth used her poetry to campaign against child labour, support the abolition of slavery and advocate for women’s place in literature. She was an incredibly courageous woman who overcame illness, a controlling father and the expectations placed upon Victorian women, and we wanted audiences to discover that side of her too. That’s why How Do I Love Thee? gradually takes on a new meaning within the production, becoming not only a poem about her love for Robert, but her love and devotion to poetry and literature.

The letters between Elizabeth and Robert were equally important. What struck me most was the extraordinary respect they had for one another. Their relationship felt remarkably equal, with both encouraging and challenging each other’s writing in a way that was unusual for the nineteenth century. It became very important to portray that mutual admiration authentically, even when their praise for one another felt almost excessive to modern ears. We kept as much of their original correspondence as possible because it felt important for the audience to hear Elizabeth and Robert’s own voices.

Letters became a recurring convention throughout the production, exploring Elizabeth’s relationships with her father, her friendship with fellow poet Mary Mitford and, of course, her correspondence with Robert. Throughout, letters bring people together and build connections.

Certain poems also unlocked key moments in Elizabeth’s life. During my research into the death of her brother Edward, I discovered her poem Grief, where she describes true sorrow not as loud despair but as silence and “full desertness”. That completely changed my understanding of how she experienced loss and, in turn, how we approached that scene.

Red Bus: How did you decide what to use directly from her writing and what to dramatise or interpret?

Ruby Thomas: Throughout the process, we tried to use as much of Elizabeth’s original writing as possible because we wanted her to tell her own story. It felt important that audiences heard Elizabeth’s own words rather than simply our interpretation of them. Some of her poems are quoted verbatim and become monologues within the performance. Apart from our adaptation of How Do I Love Thee? at the end, we have largely kept her poetry unchanged.

The letters required more adaptation, simply because of their length. Elizabeth and Robert often wrote pages at a time, and although we have shortened their correspondence, we have tried to stay as close to the original wording as possible.

The main creative tension was deciding how to dramatise and interpret Elizabeth’s life story. The more I researched, the more remarkable people and events I discovered, and I wanted to do justice to all of them. Of course, in a forty five minute production that simply isn’t possible. We had to make difficult decisions, whether that meant combining or reordering certain events, omitting figures such as her mentor John Kenyon, or imagining conversations that, while fictional, remained true to the people we discovered in our research. Those choices were never about changing Elizabeth’s story, but about telling it as truthfully and clearly as possible within the world of the play.

One piece of advice that stayed with me throughout the process came from my drama teacher at school, who reminded us that the “invisible work” is just as important as the visible work. Every poem we read, every letter we researched and every scene we eventually cut still shaped our understanding of Elizabeth.

Red Bus: Elizabeth spent much of her early life confined by illness as well as circumstance. How does the production handle her physical experience, given that you are also using physical theatre as a form?

Ruby Thomas: Exploring how to portray Elizabeth’s experience has been central to our creative process. Her confinement, caused by her illness, societal expectations and her controlling father, shaped large parts of her life and became a central focus of the production.

We developed a physical convention around a back brace, which was the recommended treatment for her spinal condition. We wanted to create a symbol of her constriction that would allow the audience not only to see her physical restriction but to feel her oppression. We also used physical theatre to show the changes in Elizabeth’s physical and emotional experience: transforming her physicality from rigid and tense in restrictive atmospheres to fluid and light in moments of freedom, so that these contrasts allow the audience to reflect on her transformation.

Physical theatre also became important when portraying the physical journey from London to Italy. Rather than simply telling the audience that Elizabeth travelled across Europe despite her illness and societal expectations, we wanted them to experience something of the scale and physical demands of that journey alongside her.

Red Bus: This is Aside Hustle’s public debut. What drew this particular group of you to Elizabeth Barrett Browning as the story you wanted to tell first?

Ruby Thomas: Theatre has always inspired me because it has the power not only to entertain, but to encourage reflection and give voice to people and stories that deserve to be heard. In my final year at school, I decided that I wanted to take my passion for drama beyond the school theatre and create a production that would inspire audiences the way I have been. So, I gathered a group of likeminded friends who would help me achieve this dream. We began to discuss themes and stories that connected to us: identity, coming of age, self-expression and the power of the arts. After discovering the incredible life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, we realised her story would allow us to explore these concepts while also educating audiences about her extraordinary life.

Through poetry, Elizabeth was able to express herself honestly and challenge the world around her. As a group leaving school and beginning the next chapter of our lives, the idea of finding your voice deeply resonated with all of us. It felt fitting that our first production should be about someone discovering their voice, as we begin discovering ours as theatre-makers.

What also struck us was Elizabeth’s legacy. Her poetry inspired generations of writers, including Emily Dickinson, and it reminded us of the extraordinary power of the arts to influence people long after a work is first created. We want to continue that cycle of inspiration and contribute to the incredible world of the arts.

It feels particularly meaningful that this is Aside Hustle’s first production. Elizabeth’s story is ultimately one of courage, creativity and finding your own voice. As we begin our own journey as a company, I can’t think of a more fitting story with which to begin ours.