Matthew Edison and Irene Poole. Photos by John Lauener
Reviewed by James Karas
How Do I Love Thee? is
a dramatic and moving play about the lives of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert
Browning in a well-acted production by Canadian Rep Theatre. It is now playing
at the Berkeley Upstairs Theatre.
Elizabeth’s
sonnet How Do I Love Thee? is one of
the finest expressions of Eros in English and the lives of the two poets,
passionate, forbidden, idealized love, has become legendary.
Florence Gibson
MacDonald takes a realistic view of the marriage and if Elizabeth loved Robert
as the sonnet says “to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach”
everyday life was considerably less happy and transcendent.
The play has
four characters, Elizabeth (Irene Poole), Robert (Matthew Edison), the servant
Wilson (Nora McLellan) and John (David Schurmann). The play takes place in
England where the two poets meet through correspondence and in Florence where
they escape after Elizabeth’s father disowns and disinherits his daughter as a
mark of his disapproval of her marriage.
MacDonald’s Elizabeth
is a strong and passionate woman with robust sexual desires. You can put aside
any notions of Elizabeth being a sickly recluse. She is devoted to writing but
she does have a problem. She is addicted to various drugs such as opium.
Robert is
presented as a passionate young man who has a serious writer’s cramp as a result
of his unhappy domestic life.
And they do have
their problems. Drugs are expensive and all their money is spent on the
pharmacy. She spends much of her time in bed; he can’t write. Domestic
squabbles follow with increasing ferocity. This is a long way from “I love thee
to the level of everyday’s/ Most quiet need, by sun by candlelight.”
Matthew Edison
makes a superb Robert. He descends from the heights of love (mostly through
letters, before they meet) to squabbling over money and domestic arrangements
to trying to wean her from her addictions. Edison can’t quite produce an
English accent but he rises to the emotional heights of the play and you
quickly forget his pronunciation.
Poole’s
Elizabeth is attractive, strong, devoted to her writing and in need of
addictive drugs perhaps as a crutch or a necessary ingredient for her
inspiration. She writes because she loves writing whereas Robert wants to publish
her poems so they can pay their bills. Poole’s performance is excellent and she
lets us see the great writer and the pathetic human being in a marriage for
which she sacrificed all and got very little.
Nora McLellan as
the faithful servant Wilson is stone-faced, intelligent and humane. Her life is
devoted to serving Elizabeth and she stands her ground and defends her mistress
with finesse and bravery. A fine performance by McLellan.
John is a cousin
of Elizabeth and the person who introduces the two poets. Schurmann is dressed
like a stuffy Victorian but his John is observant, intelligent, decent and a
fine go-between.
The set by
designer Shawn Kerwin consists of a desk and an ottoman where the poets write
and sleep. There are three columns of raw marble in the background. The
characters are on stage throughout, simply sitting at the back of the stage
when they are not participating in the action.
The play is
highly literate, dramatic and moving as we see “real” life and compare it with
the sentiments of the title.
A round of
applause goes to Ken Gass for his outstanding directing of the play. Another
ovation is for his establishment of the Canadian
Rep Theatre last year but that is another story.
______
How
Do I Love Thee? by Florence Gibson MacDonald opened on January
31 and will run until February 22, 2015 at the Berkeley
Upstairs Theatre, 26 Berkeley St. Toronto , Ontario . 416 368-3110. www.canadianrep.ca
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