Part sex farce, part revenge drama, part romantic comedy, Aphra Behn's The Rover, staged by guest director Joel Sass opens the University of Minnesota's Theatre Arts & Dance season with laughter, sword play, and the provocative question "Should not women do as men do?" Presented at the Rarig Center's Stoll Thrust stage on the West Bank Campus, The Rover will be performed by the senior class of University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater's BFA Actor Training Program and play November 1 through November 11, 2012.
Director/adapter Joel Sass observes, "In The Rover, love is a bullfight - raging hormones, and the thrill of seduction edge ever so close to impending danger...that's where the glamorous gets ugly, even violent." Playwright Behn undercuts the double standard says Sass, "This is the work of a self- actualized individual willing to explore beyond women's social confines of the 1600s. Her women are caught in a clash of strict social roles, and their own recognizable modern I-want-this-now impulses." During Behn's own time she was suspected of plagiarism and accused of lewdness because of her gender. Only recently has Behn been recognized for her influence; as Virginia Woolf admonished in A Room of One's Own (1929) "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn."
The Rover opens tomorrow night! For the behind-the-scenes scoop, check out this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM0suBnODtc&list=UUYV2lVUpk5jmldOgAqtX4DQ&index=1&feature=plcp
