Interview: Just who was Aphra Behn?

Claire Louise Amias tells us about Aphra Behn

In early 2023 Claire Louise Amias will likely be touring her present about Aphra Behn, the UK’s first skilled feminine author. We caught up with Claire to be taught a little bit extra about this fascinating historic determine and to speak about how her story will likely be dropped at life in The Masks of Aphra Behn.

So, let’s begin with the plain query, who was Aphra Behn?

Aphra Behn was arguably the primary skilled feminine author in English. She wrote performs, poetry and prose. Her most well-known works at present are her play The Rover and novella Oroonoko. She was born in 1640 and grew up in Canterbury, the daughter of a barber and a moist nurse, however ended up some of the prolific writers of the Restoration period. Before changing into a author, she labored as a spy for King Charles II within the Second Dutch War. A variety of her life story is unknown as she wasn’t aristocratic. However, she was a part of the identical libertine literary set that included the Earl of Rochester.

She’s talked about in Virginia Woolf’s e-book A Room of One’s 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.”

What first introduced Aphra Behn to your consideration then?

Photo by: Claire Newman-Williams

I first got here throughout her once I learn The Rover in my twenties. I beloved the play and directed some scenes from it with my appearing college students. It wasn’t till I did an MA at RADA that she got here up once more. We had been doing a workshop on Restoration Theatre and my tutor, Andrew Visnevski, threw down the gauntlet by saying he’d by no means seen a one-woman present about Aphra Behn and that one in every of us ought to create one. I needed to create it for my last piece on the MA, however after studying all of her performs, and plenty of her poetry and prose and three biographies, I acquired relatively slowed down with an excessive amount of data! However, I used to be drawn to the character of this vibrant libertine girl who achieved a lot within the arts at a time when, due to her intercourse and sophistication, it was almost inconceivable to take action. What emerged was this enigmatic and fascinating character who, to outlive, tailored to no matter scenario she was in. To keep on exploring her work, I directed scenes from her performs and a rehearsed studying of The Lucky Chance at RADA.

Five years later, in 2016, the chance to participate within the Women and War Festival at London’s So & So Arts Club got here up. I realised the way in which to create the one-woman present was to select one specific a part of Behn’s life to concentrate on – and it so occurred that her time as a spy within the Dutch wars was the very best documented. As quickly as I had the idea I wrote the present fairly rapidly. It was accepted for a four-week run on the Women and War Festival, then on the RADA Festival, and it went on a nationwide tour, getting plenty of four-star evaluations. Pradeep Jey directed it – he’s co-artistic director of our theatre firm, A Monkey with Cymbals, which we arrange in 2009. We have working relationship, and a detailed sufficient friendship that we’re capable of actually problem one another and our inventive decisions.

You’ve carried out The Masks of Aphra Behn since 2016, there was a live-stream throughout lockdown and now you might be taking part in a mini tour in 2023. What is it that retains bringing you again to her story?

I’ve determined to deliver again my one girl present about her now as a result of there’s presently a marketing campaign to get a statue constructed to commemorate Behn, run by the The A is for Aphra Campaign and the Canterbury Commemoration Society. So the topic may be very topical.

Photo by: Greg Veit

You should have performed in depth analysis of Aphra Behn’s poetry, letters and performs?

Yes, as I discussed, it took a couple of years of analysis to put in writing The Masks of Aphra Behn. My last undertaking at RADA ended up being a dramaturgical anthology of scenes from Behn’s performs, plus bits from her poems and letters, which included autobiographical references to her life. I’m undecided if it was in itself an incredible piece of theatre, but it surely actually gave me a basis for writing The Masks of Aphra Behn. This helped give me a way of her voice, in order that her letters and introductions to her performs, and even a piece from the opening of Oroonoko (which was thought by early biographers to be primarily based on her personal historical past), seamlessly move into the traces I’ve written.

It offers the present a way of authenticity by containing a few of Behn’s personal phrases

Tell us a little bit extra in regards to the A is for Aphra marketing campaign.

The A is for Aphra Campaign has the same objective to my very own. Aphra Behn achieved a unprecedented physique of labor and stays an essential historic determine, but she’s not a widely known identify.

The marketing campaign organisers goal to have her celebrated publicly, and so they’ve joined forces with the Canterbury Commemoration Society to get a bronze statue of this unimaginable girl erected in her hometown of Canterbury.

When I noticed that this marketing campaign had launched on social media, I felt I needed to get in contact. They’ve kindly promoted my present of their newsletters, and after every efficiency I recommend individuals donate to the A is for Aphra Campaign to boost funds for the statue.

What would you want audiences to remove out of your present?

I’d like individuals to come back away from the present realizing a bit about this superb girl, and to be intrigued sufficient to learn or watch extra of her performs, and to be impressed by her tenacity and expertise. And to hearken to her generally very fashionable ideas on sexual politics and her satirical tackle the place of ladies in society.

I’ve additionally tried to put in writing my present within the fashion of how I think about Behn may need written her personal life story, filled with journey, humour and pathos, so I hope the viewers are entertained!

What are your plans after the tour? We know you have got been creating Woman Behind Glass – would possibly we see that in 2023?

I’m getting near a draft of Woman Behind Glass that I’m proud of. It’s a ghost story that additionally touches with regards to dementia. I’m a fan of MR James and the ghost tales of E Nesbit, and the play offers with a supernatural presence that’s probably an emanation of previous and current human trauma. Again, it’s an concept I’ve been taking part in with for some time. I all the time want a gestation interval the place the concepts formulate. Pradeep and I beforehand obtained an ACE grant for an R&D undertaking about reminiscence and images, and that is actually a improvement of that concept. We hope to use for additional funding this yr. So, watch this house!

Thanks to Claire for chatting with us and search for our overview of The Masks of Aphra Behn quickly. You can go to Claire’s web site right here and discover her on Twitter right here.

The Masks of Aphra Behn performs at:

White Bear Theatre January 11-13. Tickets and extra data might be discovered right here.

The Space February 17 & 18. Tickets and extra data might be discovered right here.

The Brooke Theatre February 22. Tickets and extra data might be discovered right here.