A Woman's Comedy
By Beth Herst
U.B.C. English Students’ Society
Director’s Notes
We are honoured to take you on this journey through the imagined life of Restoration playwright Aphra Behn.This “pretty, witty whore” was the first woman in
England to make her living by her pen. Sixteen of her eighteen plays were produced during her lifetime; only Dryden was more prolific. And yet we do not study Aphra
Behn. For three hundred years she has lain in relative obscurity.One of my favorite cartoons depicts the tombstone of a Mrs. Bomblatt: “She was a devoted laundress.” A thought-balloon rising out of the grave reads, “SI ITT”. Though
Mrs. Behn did much more than laundry, the attempts to consign her to a similar oblivion have been largely successful. In bringing Aphra into the light, A Woman’s Comedy moves to repair the injustice done to a truly amazing spirit. We hope you will join with us in
celebrating “the late, ingenious Mrs. Behn.”I wish to dedicate my work on this play to my grandmothers, Alice and Pearl, who both know so much about the comedy of womanhood. -Claire Fogal
A Woman’s Comedy by Beth Herst is produced
by special arrangement with the
Playwrights Union OF CANADA
54 Wolsicy Street, 2nd Floor
Toronto, Ontario
MST 1A5
“She was a mere harlot who danced through uncleanness and dared [the others] to follow.”
“If I must not, because of my sex, have this freedom … I lay down my quill and you shall hear no more of me … for I am not content to write for a third day only. I value fame as much as if I had been born a hero, and if you rob me of that I can
retire from the ungrateful world, and scorn its fickle favours.”
“Even if her life remained pure, it is amply evident her mind was tainted to the very core. Grossness was congenial to her … Mrs. Behn’s indelicacy was useless and worse than useless, the superfluous addition of a corrupt mind and vitiated taste.”
“She had been a Tory, a hedonist, a bohemian, and hardly, by the standards of the new generation, a lady. Gracefully, she didn’t outlive her own. ”
“All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn … for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.”
The Cast
Aphra Behn – Deborah Neville
Jack Hoyle – John Adams
Lord Greville – Tim Morris
Sir William Archer – Shawn Serdar
Mr. Harcourt – George Hicks
Betty Lacy – Sharon Wallace
Directed by Claire Fogal
Produced by Chris Cronin, Wendy Kooyman & The English Students` Society
Assistant Director – Lynn Mockler
Stage Manager – Wendy Kooyman
ASMs – Catherine Guillet, Scott Waters
FOH Manager – Vanessa Ho
