Elizabeth Barrett lived near Malvern as a child, which suggested to the director, Sir Barry Jackson, the appropriateness of opening the play there before presenting it in the West End.

[3] The production was later seen in Birmingham[4] before opening, with the original cast unchanged, at the Queen's Theatre in London on 23 September 1930, where it ran until 2 January 1932,[5] a total of 528 performances.

[3][9] In search of an American production, Besier was rebuffed by 27 producers before the actress Katharine Cornell took an interest in the play and had it staged at the Hanna Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio on 29 January 1931.

To Moulton-Barrett, love entails "cruelty and loathing and degradation and remorse ... With the help of God, and through years of tormenting abstinence, I strangled it in myself.

Learning from Henrietta that his cruel vengeance has been thwarted, Barrett stands perfectly still, "staring straight before him and mechanically tearing Elizabeth's letter into little pieces, which drop to his feet".

[16] There was a West End revival of the play in 1948 at the Garrick Theatre, starring Margaret Johnston, Alec Clunes and Tom Walls.

[18] BBC television broadcast an adaptation of the play on 14 October 1951, starring Pauline Jameson as Elizabeth, Griffith Jones as Browning and D. A. Clarke-Smith as Edward Moulton-Barrett.

A 1982 TV film of the play was made by the BBC starring Jane Lapotaire as Elizabeth, Joss Ackland as her father and Jeremy Brett as Browning.