The Rover

Aphra Behn's best-known play was written in 1677, at the height of the vogue for Restoration comedy which drew so much of its rakish flavour from the character of Charles II's court. The play itself, however, takes its audience back to the dark years of Royalist exile, when loyal Stuart-loving Cavaliers found themselves exiled from their native land. There's a promenade aspect to Naomi Jones's staging, which begins in the bar area as sisters Hellena and Florinda discuss their amorous prospects - one is about become a nun, the other to marry a man she doesn't much fancy- and decide instead to go to Carnival in Naples in search of adventure, and true love, while masquerading as gypsies. There's a lovely intimacy about this scene, and the consequent shift to an expanded social world, coinciding with the move of the players and spectators into the formal auditorium, is smartly done. Behn was a pioneering female playwright, and her script twists between full-blooded romp, offering insidious arguments for free love, and a more rueful vision of the consequences of the inequality of the sexes. This double perspective is nicely captured in Jones's well-cast production, with Sam Wilkin particularly strong as Willmore (the 'Rover' of the title), alternating puppyish appeal with an altogether darker disregard for the emotional distress he leaves in his swaggering wake, and Jonathan Warde affecting as the much-abused Essex boy Blunt.