TISCH DRAMA STAGE: The Rover

TISCH DRAMA STAGE

PRESENTS

THE ROVER

October 5-14

By Aphra Behn
Adapted and directed by Andy Arden-Reese

Carnival time, Naples. 17th Century, Italy. A rogue band of exiled Cavaliers descend upon the city in a grand quest of fun and romance. The entanglement of plot lines through mistaken identities and hidden truths ensues, where the masks of Carnival offer both refuge and retaliation, and love and frivolity interlope with terror and pathos. What happens when the truths ripped from behind the masks are darker than the lies that cover them?

Groundbreaking playwright Aphra Behn was one of the first women able to earn a living writing plays, who even Virginia Woolf traces back as being the first of the first to make her own writing possible. Written in both verse and prose, The Rover is a dark comedy written within the conventions of 17th-century Restoration Comedy but turning much of the societal values of the time on their head. Provocative at its core, The Rover explores gender, sex, and power in the guise of a frivolous romp. With an all-female/female-presenting cast, and in the spirit of Behn’s provocation and sense of fun, this production of The Rover will strip the play to its essence to expose the beating heart beneath the manners and mayhem.