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Frederick, played by Kristin Conrad, and Willmore, played by Kelsey Rodriguez, cross swords on the set of Ohio University's production of The Rover.

OU Division of Theater’s final performance stars an all-female cast

For its final performance of the semester, the Ohio University Division of Theater is bringing a 350-year-old classic play to its stage featuring an all-female cast.

The Rover, a play written by English playwright Aphra Behn in the mid-1600s, will be performed by the women of the OU theater starting tonight at 8 p.m. in the Elizabeth Evans Baker Theater in Kantner Hall.

The play tells the story of a rowdy group of Englishmen in Naples and the troubles they find themselves steeped in. The Restoration-era comedy features several sword fights, professions of love and more than a few sexual innuendos, many of which are performed by women with fake beards drawn on their faces.

Brian Evans, an associate professor of theater and director of The Rover, was introduced to the classic 30 years ago in a theater history class and has been excited about it ever since. Now, he is finally bringing it to the stage himself.

Aphra Behn, Evans said, was the very first female professional playwright. In The Rover, she satirizes the sexist ideologies of the playwrights and society of her time. That combined with a lack of roles for women in other classical works prompted Evans to cast only women in the play.

“Having an all female cast gives us an opportunity to look at this play from another perspective, and it gives the actresses a chance to bring that perspective to the stage,” he said.

Evans found no difficulty in casting and directing women in male roles, he said. In fact, having only female actresses made portraying the sexist and sometimes violent scenes easier.

“There’s always a challenge with portraying sexism on stage for male actors, in which there might be a tendency to ease off how bad it really is,” Evans said. “These women are just going for it. They have that perspective. They’re not easing off at all.”

Evans said although The Rover was written centuries ago, its themes are still relevant today. The action and banter of the play help portray them in ways that are still exciting.

“I think the themes of sexism in our society are incredibly relevant,” he said. “The locker room talk of the guys in this play seems sadly contemporary.”

Devon Swanson, a junior studying acting, creative writing and Spanish, plays three different male roles throughout the play. She first appears as Sancho, a Spanish pimp. Later, she returns as Diego, a page to a Spanish noble. Finally, she plays Sebastian, a servant to a notorious courtesan.

Swanson has had experience playing male parts in the past. She said about half of the roles she’s played since she starting acting have been men. But the male roles she plays in The Rover have been different because she and the other actresses are not necessarily trying to hide the fact that they are women.

“We are playing with the masculinity,” she said. “There’s facial hair. We went over ... the physicality of what it is to be a man versus a woman. But it’s different because we want the audience to understand that we are women playing men and we do want to play off that fact.”

Rather than being intimidated by the challenge of playing the opposite sex, Swanson said she took the roles as an interesting opportunity.

“There was a challenge … because a lot of the female actors are playing men that scorn women, punish women, have terrible views on women that are very apparent in the show,” she said. “But it’s also kind of great because it’s women pointing out what’s wrong in male culture instead of using a man to portray that image.”

@adeichelberger

ae595714@ohio.edu

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