Although Aphra Behn (1640-1689) was one of the most prolific British playwrights of her generation, it is unlikely that many people have heard of her. Beginning this weekend, the Macalester community can become reacquainted with this forgotten writer as the Theater and Dance Department opens her play The Rover.

Set in Spain during the week of Carnival that precedes the observance of the Lenten holidays, the play’s plot revolves around three wealthy, sheltered but adventurous sisters who sneak out of their father’s house wearing Carnival disguise and fall in with a group of exiled English mercenary soldiers or “Rovers.”

While the play fell out of the repertory for nearly 100 years, it has regained much critical attention in the last decade.

Guest artist Joel Sass, artistic director of the Mary Worth Theatre Company in Minneapolis, directs Macalester’s production of this play, which stars 18 students.

Sass describes the play as a “three-act sex comedy from the Restoration Period.”

The Rover (1702) is based on a massive 10-act play by Thomas Killigrew, a friend of the exiled Charles II, entitled Thomaso, or the Wanderer. Killigrew’s original play aimed to demonstrate the brutishness of the British Cavaliers as they stormed through other countries and left paths of ruined women in the wake.

Behn’s play kept Killigrew’s most interesting bits and became a success that continued to be produced into the early 18th century. Behn’s version focused on the issues that were important to her, including love and marriage.

The games of love involve Florinda, who is destined to marry an old rich man or her brother's friend, and Belville, a young gallant who rescues her and wins her heart. Other characters include Hellena, Florinda's sister, and Willmore, a young rake who falls in love with her.

The women—Florinda and Hellena—take the situation into their own hands, deciding what they want.

Behn is the first known British woman to have made a living as a playwright. She was also known for her escapades as a spy and for her various other nefarious activities.

In her brilliant life, she wrote more plays than any British playwright of her generation except John Dryden. However, Behn then fell into obsolescence until feminist scholars rediscovered her several decades ago.

Behn’s heroines derive from the complex characters of Shakespeare, but their agency springs from Behn's own pen and Behn's own times. The Rover’s robust and witty treatment of politics and desire, intrigue and disguise, is delightful and surprisingly contemporary.