The Rover at Big Idea Theatre

Two sisters, Florinda, betrothed to a rich merchant she doesn’t love, and Hellena, bound for life in the convent are determined to experience life and love. They escape to Naples during Carnival, where they encounter the dashing Belvile and his band of rambunctious exiles. In this proto-feminist comedy of manners by Aphra Behn, the first professional female playwright in the English language, the madcap misadventures of the banished Cavaliers clash with the ladies’ rebellion against patriarchal authority in a ribald subversion of societal norms filled with disguises, duels, and all manner of debauchery.