The Rover
by Aphra Behn
Directed by Kim Mancuso
Fight Choreography by Richard Hedderman
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Playing March 17, 18 and March 22, 23, and 24 in MIT's Sala de Puerto Rico |
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Fight Choreography by Richard Hedderman
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Playing March 17, 18 and March 22, 23, and 24 in MIT's Sala de Puerto Rico |
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Aphra Behn (1640-1689) was the first woman in England to have a successful career as a professional writer. As a child she lived for several years in Surinam in the West Indies. As a young woman, she was briefly married to a Dutch merchant. After his death she stayed on in Antwerp as a spy for Charles II during the Dutch Wars (1665-1667). Because the crown never paid for her service, Behn was forced to serve time in debtor's prison when she returned to England. After being released from prison, she turned to professional writing to support herself. She never remarried.
The Rover, published and first performed in 1677, is Aphra Behn's best-known and most popular play. Behn used Thomas Killigrew's play Thomaso (written in 1664) as a source for her play, borrowing many of its characters, situations, and even dialogue. Though the practice of borrowing plot was a common one at the time, she was accused of outright plagiarism in connection with The Rover.
For our production, we have used a script that was adapted by the Royal Shakespeare Company. This version was first performed at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, on July 3, 1986 with Jeremy Irons in the role of Willmore. John Barton directed the production; he is also responsible for adapting Behn's text.
The Rover takes place during the pre-Lenten carnival time. Behn originally set the play in 1650s Naples to evoke a non-specific "exotic" foreign setting in the misty past. Barton shifted this location to an unnamed Spanish colony in the West Indies, specifically in order to emphasize the roles of slaves and plantation women as a metaphor for marriage.
The rover (Willmore) and his rakish friends are Royalist cavaliers for Charles II, who were forced to live in exile during the Puritan Interregnum of the 1650s while they waited for Charles II to be restored to the throne. These cavaliers were accustomed to a wild and warlike existence as "soldiers of fortune" and frequently dueled and brawled.
Despite the title, this play focuses more on the roles of women during the Restoration than on those of men. The plot centers around the struggle of three sisters (Florinda, Hellena, and Valeria) to escape the fates prescribed them by their brother and their father: a loveless, arranged marriage and a nunnery. Taking advantage of the freedom afforded them by carnival disguises, the sisters encounter the Royalist cavaliers and fall in love.
Behn also raises other concerns about how women were treated in the 17th century. The cavaliers treat all lower class women as whores; Florinda is almost forcibly raped twice when she is mistaken for a harlot. Behn also portrays with compassion the fate of women who are forced to earn their living, using characters like Lucetta (a whore) and Angellica Bianca (a high-priced courtesan). Angellica, as a courtesan, is one of the few women of the time that would have had any power independent of men. Yet Angellica does the unforgivable and falls in love with Willmore, thereby giving up her strength.
Her portrayal of women as complex, intelligent characters, and her depiction of the inequities under which women suffered, establish Behn as a unique and groundbreaking voice. As Virginia Woolf wrote in A Room of One's Own, "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn -- for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds."