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the ur international theatre program
artistic director nigel maister
production manager gordon rice
administrator katie farrell
assistant technical director sarah eisel
production assistant & props master carlotta gambato
costume shop manager nadine brooks taylor
box office & front-of-house manager macie mcgowan
assistant costume shop manager alexandra rozansky
costume intern melissa martin
costume shop volunteers jacqueline o'donnell & lakeisha holyfield
assistant props masters yuan jiang, david krinick & frances swanson
scene shop assistants christopher futia, jake gardner & stevan veljkovic
publicity interns raphael benjamin, william feuerman, mohammad seraji
alejandra contreras & valerie savenier
theatre intern stephanie schwartz
program information compiled by ellie law
URITP photographer adam fenster
URITP videographer kevin brice
production trailer by kelly walsh & deb youn
production trailer produced by maura rapkin & alexa hirsch for
the undergraduate film committee
URITP webmaster zachary kimball
graphic, program & poster design
i:master/studios at [email protected]
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special thanks
Applied Audio and Theatre Supply - Joe Buonumo - Karin Coonrod - Steve Crowley - Jeff Englander
Katie Farrell - Doug Kelley - Prof. Stephanie Li - Prof. Katherine Mannheimer - Macie McGowan - Rob
Lewis/Brighton High School - Northside Salvage Yard - Meridel Phillips - Metalico Rochester, Inc.
Prof. Renato Perucchio - Chris Pratt - Michael Riffle - UR Department of Chemical Engineering
UR Department of Mechanical Engineering - James Zavislan
a note about the program
Program content is compiled by the production’s Assistant Director, Ellie Law, and edited by Nigel
Maister. For a complete list of sources and works cited, please contact the Theatre Program. The
program and its printing is supported in part by the UR English Department (“The Program Project”).
This production has been made possible through the combined efforts of
ENG 170 & 270 (Technical & Advanced Technical Theatre), ENG 172 (Intro to Stage Lighting and Sound),
and ENG 290 (Plays in Production)
Rafi Benjamin - Rory Blunt - Adam Brinkman - Benjamin Brown - Grace Cannon - Eric Cohen - Nina DeSoi
Cassandra Donatelli - Christopher Futia - Jake Gardner - Thane Green - Kobie Hamm - Camber Hansen-Karr
William Hogan III - Jonathan Isaacs - Alex Karpinski - John Killoran - Andrew Knight - Max Letaconnoux
Michael Mayar - John Milks - Stefanie Milner - Laura Nichols - Penina Rubin - Li-Ya Sun - Franny Swanson
Jennifer Uvina - Eric Yeh - Qiongsi Zhu - James Zino
the university of rochester international theatre program presents
THE emperor
of the moon
by aphra behn
directed & choreographed by matthew earnest
set design by sean tribble
costume design by william bezek
lighting design by derek wright
sound design by james gillen kosmatka
original music by patrick johnson
voice and acting coaching by danny hoskins
production staff
production stage manager ............................................ frances swanson
assistant production stage manager .......................... cassandra donatelli
assistant stage managers ................................. raphael benjamin/run crew
......................................................................................... billy hogan/run crew
................................................................................. jonathan isaacs/run crew
...................................................................................... emily morris/costumes
.............................................................................................. liza penney/props
........................................................................... stephanie schwartz/run crew
...................................................................................... brittania turner/sound
master electrician .................................................................... ashley nguyen
assistant m.e. .................................................................... cassandra donatelli
audiovisual engineer ............................................................... bruce stockton
assistant a.v.e. ................................................................................. kevin brice
follow spot operator ............................................................... grace cannon
additional painters ..................................... apollo mark weaver & jim link
assistant director ................................................................................ ellie law
the emperor of the moon
runs approximately 2 hours with one 15 minute intermission
please note
theatrical gunshots are used in this production
A
aphra behn (1640-1689) - a biography
phra Behn (née Johnson) was born near Canterbury, England in July of 1640. She spent much of her
early life traveling with her father who had been appointed governor to Surinam, an English sugar colony on the east cost of Venezuela. It is believed that during her time in Venezuela she was introduced
to an African slave leader who was later the inspiration for her most popular novel, Oroonoko. In The Secret
Life of Aphra Behn, Janet Todd, notes that this and other encounters in the life of Behn address the idea that
she did not believe that class or race was proper reason to highlight any group as superior to another.
Evidence also suggests that Behn was likely raised a Catholic. This is supported by the dedication
of her play, The Rover, Part II to the Catholic Duke of York who, in the anti-Catholic fervor of the 1670’s and
80’s, was exiled more than once. Having been raised under the Catholic denomination during a time when
the Puritan church was in power and also having had a greater opportunity to travel than many women of her
time meant Behn was granted the experiences needed to formulate her own opinions on a wide variety of
ideas, such as race and politics. Behn had strong public opinions on politics, something uncommon for 17th
century women. She participated unusually actively in this sphere.
A division of political parties emerged in England around the time of Behn’s birth in 1640. This would
grow to play a large part in the extensive bouts of revolution that lasted throughout the reign of Charles I and
into the early years of Charles II’s reign. This division was centered on a conflict between whether Parliament
or the Crown should hold the dominant hand in ruling the country. From this debate two distinct political
groups arose: the Tories and the Whigs. Behn found her sympathies with the Tories, who believed that the
king held the divine right to govern and, as a result, they practiced absolute allegiance to him. Tories very
much desired that monarchical power should surpass parliamentary power. It was this devotion to the king
that would later lead her to work as an English spy.
In 1664 Behn married her husband Johan, an English-born merchant of Dutch descent about whom
very little is known. Mr. Behn died within a few years. Following his death, Aphra began working as a spy for
Charles II during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. It is thought that her work included acting as a courtesan to
leading Dutch politicians in order to gain secret intelligence concerning warfare. Unfortunately this endeavor
wound up being unpaid work for Behn and, after borrowing money to return home to England, she fell into
debt and was threatened with, or possibly placed in a debtors’ prison. It was there that she began writing; her
literary beginnings stemming from her need for a sustainable income. Throughout the rest of her life, Behn
published poetry, essays, novels, and plays. Today she is credited as being the first professional female writer
in England. Certainly, she was the only female playwright writing during the early years of the Restoration.
Much of what is known about Behn can only be gleaned from her writing. There, certain thematic
concerns, including the mental and sexual empowerment of women and the dissolving of gender expectations, predominate. The few institutions that did keep historical records at the time excluded women, and the
male-dominated literary world worked to limit the influence of female writers, making substantial efforts to
discredit Behn’s work. One author, Ernest Bernbaum, wrote a work entitled Mrs. Behn's Biography: a Fiction,
in which he first outlined the history of the “supposed” Aphra Behn and then went on to deny the reality of all
he had presented. Aphra Behn died on April 16, 1689. She is buried in Westminster Abbey, and is recognized
as being the first women buried there in recognition of her own achievements. Her gravestone reads:
Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be
Defense enough against Mortality
Sean Tribble's (Scenic Designer) design credits include Opera, Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway,
Film and Television. His work has been seen throughout the United States in cities like Dallas and Los Angeles, and internationally in countries such as the Czech Republic. MFA in Scenic & Costume Design, Tisch
School of the Arts
William Bezek (Costume Designer) has been a professional artist since the age of seventeen and has executed work in every medium imaginable in the past 29 years. His paintings have hung in galleries; his sculptures
have been published in books; his characters have been on TV; his interior decorations have been in magazines; and his fanciful creations have graced the stage. Although he has an education in Fine Arts with study
at Santa Barbara Community College and San Francisco's Academy of Art College, his style and techniques
are largely self taught.
Derek Wright (Lighting Designer) designs lighting (and occasionally scenery) for theatre, dance, opera
and special events. His lighting design work will be part of the USA exhibit at the 2011 Prague Quadrennial. Recent NYC designs with: Performance Space 122, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Columbia Stages, Equilicua Producciones, Cherry Lane Theatre, NYU (Tisch and Steinhart), East River Commedia, Bushwick Starr,
Anonymous Ensemble, Wolf 359, Slant Theatre Project, Brooklyn Music School and The Assembly. Derek is
happy to be collaborating with Matthew Earnest again, especially after designing Matthew’s successful NYC
production of Juan Mayorga’s Way to Heaven. Regional designs: American Repertory Theatre, Studio Theatre, Andy Warhol Museum. UK designs: Mercury Theatre, LEAP Dance Festival, Theatre Royal, Edinburgh
Fringe Festival. Training: MFA, New York University; BFA, Univ. of Evansville.
James Gillen Kosmatka (Sound Designer) is a theatre artist from Cleveland, Ohio. His recent projects include co-adapting Night of the Living Dead for the stage with John Paul Soto for Cleveland State University,
sound designing Matthew Earnest's production Wanderlust for Cleveland Public Theatre/Ice Factory 2010,
and stage managing The Santaland Diaries at CPT. He is the administrative assistant at Cleveland State University and the company manager for CSU Summer Stages.
Patrick Johnson (Composer) first composed music for Matthew Earnest almost twenty years ago for a
production of Cymbeline in Dallas, Texas. His arrangements have been heard most recently at the Love Ball in
Vienna, The Howl Festival, and Night of a Thousand Stevies in New York City. He has composed music for
commercials for Osprey Productions, has written and remixed music for many New York performers, and is
currently recording an album of original songs to be released in 2011. Patrick has also designed costumes for
Mr. Earnest many times, most recently for the New York premiere of Himmelweg for Equilicua Producciones,
Peter Pan and Alice for Kent State, and various productions for deep ellum ensemble. Thanks, as always, to
Willy Everettstein.
Danny Hoskins (Voice and Acting Coach) is an actor, director, teacher and playwright, originally from the
Rochester area. Mr. Hoskins has served as Interim Director of Theatre at Elmira College, taught acting and
voice at the University of South Carolina, SUNY Brockport and the University of Rochester, and co-founded
the South Carolina-based company, Pineapple Productions. His newest film, Second Story Man will premiere
this winter (www.secondstorymanmovie.com). His directing credits include: Take Me Out, The Pillowman,
Crimes of the Heart and Misery, Blackfriars Theatre; Speed the Plow, JCC CenterStage; and Children of Eden
for Elmira College. His musical adaptation of The Three Musketeers was workshopped at JCC CenterStage
in 2008 and his adaptation of Dracula, which he directed and performed in, with PUSH Physical Theatre, premiered at Geva Theatre Center in 2009. Mr. Hoskins holds an MFA from the University of South Carolina.
Matthew Earnest (Director) was born in 1969, grew up in Texas and
began his career under Richard Hamburger at Dallas Theater Center.
Relocating to New York City, he spent a season as assistant director
to Lee Breuer at Mabou Mines, was featured in Richard Foreman’s
Blueprint Series for Emerging Directors, and a Drama League fellowship made him assistant director to Adrian Hall, a position he would
hold for many years. As Founding Artistic Director of the NYCbased deep ellum ensemble, Matthew created works that garnered
international acclaim from 1995 until the company disbanded in 2007.
Today he is an associate artist at Germany’s English Theatre Berlin, at
the University of Delaware’s PTTP/REP, and he works independently
around the country directing plays and creating new works. In 2008
he succeeded directors Ping Chong and Vincent Dowling, among
others, as the Roe Green Visiting Director at Kent State University.
Matthew’s productions have been seen across the U.S., Europe and
in Africa. These include: the U.S. premiere of Juan Mayorga’s Way
to Heaven (Himmelweg), which received The New York Times’ Critics’ Pick and is currently running off-Broadway; Elizabeth, Almost by
Chance a Woman by Nobel laureate Dario Fo, and Lipstick Traces: a
Secret History of the 20th Century by Kirk Lynn, et al. (both receiving
Top 10 citations from The Raleigh News & Observer); Shakespeare’s
Coriolanus (Dallas Morning News Top 10) and A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (DsTV Performing Arts Festival in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia);
On the Verge, or the Geography of Yearning by Eric Overmyer (Dallas Theatre Critics’ Forum Award); Fen by Caryl Churchill (Dallas
Observer’s Best of Dallas Award); plus plays by José Rivera, Gertrude Stein, Erik Ehn, Thornton Wilder, Suzan-Lori Parks, Tennessee
Williams and many others. Matthew has directed his own original
translations of Brecht and Büchner, and his own English versions of
Ibsen and Chekhov. Original adaptations include: Wanderlust: a History of Walking created from Rebecca Solnit’s bestselling book with
a 2010 NEA Access to Artistic Excellence grant (NYC’s Ice Factory,
and Cleveland Public Theatre); Alice… from works by Lewis Carroll
(Porthouse Theatre, Ohio); Peter Pan, or the boy who wouldn’t grow up
from works by J.M. Barrie (Cleveland Scene Best Director of 2007);
Ch’ien-nü leaves her body after a play by Chêng Teh-hui (OntologicalHysteric Theater, NYC); and The Jilting of Granny Weatherall from
the story by Katherine Anne Porter (BIFF Award: NY Fringe). Original works: The Josephine Footnote (Daniel Arts Center, Great Barrington, MA), Doctor Tedrow’s Last Breath (NYC’s Ice Factory; Trinity
River Arts Center, Dallas); 6 white plates (Kraine Theater, NYC), and
blood pudding (English Theater Berlin; Audience Favourite Award:
Dublin Festival Fringe).
an aphra behn timeline
1640 – Aphra Johnson born in Kent.
1663 – Travels to Surinam.
1664 – Returns to England; probably marries Mr. Behn.
1665 – Probable death of, or separation from husband.
1666 – Travels to Holland as a spy for English government.
Returns home. Is threatened with debtors’ prison.
1670 – The Forced Marriage, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
1671 – The Amorous Prince, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
1673 – The Dutch Lover, Dorset Garden.
1676 – Abdelazer or The Moor’s Revenge, Dorset Garden.
The Town Fop or Sir Timothy Tawdry, Dorset Garden.
1677 – The Rover, Dorset Garden.
1678 – Sir Patient Fancy, Dorset Garden.
1679 – The Feigned Courtesans, Dorset Garden.
Probable performance of The Young King, Dorset Garden.
1681 – The Rover, Part II, Dorset Garden.
The Roundheads or The Good Old Cause, Dorset Garden.
The False Count, Dorset Garden.
1682 – Duke’s Company takes over King’s Company; United Company formed.
Like Father, Like Son, Dorset Garden.
The City Heiress, Dorset Garden.
1683-5 – Works on poetry, translations, and novels.
1684 – Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and his Sister, Part I.
Poems Upon Several Occasions, with Voyage to the Isle of Love.
1685 – Love-Letters, Part II.
1686 – The Luck Chance, Drury Lane.
1687 – The Emperor of the Moon, Dorset Garden.
Love-Letters, Part III.
1688 – The Fair Jilt.
Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave.
1689 – 16 April, Behn dies. Buried in Westminster Abbey.
The Window Ranter, Drury Lane.
1696 – The Younger Brother, Drury Lane.
artist's bio's
Don Quick-sottish: Like Don Quixote—
Cervantes’s hero—famous for being taken in by
chivalric romance, Dr Baliardo has taken fiction for
truth; in his case books of fantastic travels have deceived him.
a Discourse of the World in the
Moon: A moon-voyage written by Cyrano de
Bergerac, English versions of which were published
in 1659 and 1687.
He that knew all ... knew nothing
yet: From a saying attributed to Socrates: ‘I know
nothing except the fact of my ignorance.’
Love ceases to be a pleasure when it ceases to be a secret.
Aphra Behn
She was a writer who not only insisted on being heard
but successfully forced the men who dominated the jealous literary world of Restoration England to recognize
her as an equal.
Reconstructing Aphra: A Social Biography of
Aphra Behn by Angeline Goreau
Dialogue of Icaromenippus: A
dialogue by Lucian in which Menippus
tells of his trip to the moon. Various ideas
mentioned in later fantastic voyages, including the possibility of the moon being
inhabited, are aired here. The name Icaromenippus indicates that Menippus is
like Icarus in flying up into the heavens.
premium mobile: The 'first mover,'
in Ptolemaic astronomy; the sphere that
moves all the others. Figuratively applied
to Mopsophil as the machine that moves
Scaramouch’s feelings.
That perfect tranquility of life, which is nowhere to be found but in retreat, a
faithful friend, and a good library.
Aphra Behn
These lines would lose half their mordancy if the playwright were not Aphra
Behn, the poetess-punk.
Nobody’s Story: The Vanishing Acts of Women Writers in the Marketplace 1670-1820 by Catherine Gallagher
footnotes, quotes & other addenda
Chevalier ... cannons (Song):
Fair haired cavalier,
No more patches, no more powder,
No more ribbons and lace.
Bellemante is reciting a list of young men’s ornaments.
The Man in the Moon: The title of
a fantastic voyage by the supposed Spaniard, ‘Domingo Gonsales, the Speedy
Messenger,’ who travelled to the moon
in a flying machine drawn by large geese
called ‘gansas’.
The Rosicrucian Order is a Christian society of mystics (originally a secret society) that are
believed to hold knowledge of nature, the physical
universe, and the spiritual realm that is otherwise
concealed from most of humanity. In the early 17th
century, esoteric Rosicrucian manifestoes posited a
secret order of alchemists and scholars who were to
revolutionize the arts and sciences of Western Europe. This developed into a network of mathematicians, astronomers, scholars, natural philosophers
and scientists which would later form the Royal
Society—a learned society of science and the oldest such body in the world.
The Ebula: In Godwin’s The Man in
the Moone, Gonsales is given various
magic stones; one, the Ebula, helps him
rise and descend through the air at will.
Burn all my books: Like Don Quixote, the
doctor rejects his books when he learns how they
have deceived him.
May Caesar live: The epilogue's
eulogy of James II as Caesar is mixed with
strong hints that he should patronize the
stage more. Royal patronage had been
declining since the later part of Charles
II’s reign.
moon-calfs: Idiots, so called because their birth was once thought to
have been affected by the moon; in the
context of The Emperor of the Moon, it
also anticipates the suitors’ later pretence
to have been born on the moon.
footnotes, quotes & other addenda
Each moment of a happy lover's hour is
worth an age of dull and common life.
Aphra Behn
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.
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
C
cont.
Salamanders: Medieval mystics believed
Salamanders to be spirits of fire who live in the
invisible spiritual ether. It was thought that
without them fire could not exist. The mysterious nature of the Salamander was rooted in the
fact that humans were unable to detect their
presence visually because all evidence of their
existence quickly turned to ash.
harles I’s overthrow was due, in part, to the desire of Parliament for more power. Many undercover
gatherings were held in order to plot the King’s overthrow and to keep revolutionary plans secret.
This secrecy eventually led England into a period of nearly 20 years of instability without a properly representative government.
With the monarchy’s restoration, measures were put in place to regain the trust of the people.
Decrees were made limiting Parliament and the Ministers of the Court from acting in secrecy. The public
was led to believe that the men who had been in office during Charles I and Cromwell’s rule had been
removed. However some of those men were kept on to act as ministers, including Sir Thomas Clifford,
Lord Arlington, the Duke of Buckingham, Lord Ashley, and Lord Lauderdale. These scholars were believed to be allied closely to the king but were also thought to be loyal to Parliament. This led people to
believe that a new secret society was being formed, aimed at undermining the government. (At the time
it was noted that the names of these men spelled out the acronym cabal, and they were referred to by
this name for the remainder of time they held office.) Today the term is still used to refer to a group of
secret conspirators or advisors.
Charles I
the puritans, the shiuttering of the theatres & the restoration
T
he Puritan sect of Protestantism began as a reform movement within the Anglican
Church of England during the late sixteenth century. It was not initially an attempt
to split the church, but to continue to reform the Protestant faith towards a more
devoutly biblical and morally centered religion. The Puritans believed that the Protestant church, more specifically the Church of England, was still too much like the Roman
Catholic Church and that, in order to transcend the ideologies and practices of Catholicism, society should have more rigorously defined behaviors and customs. This impulse
for reform quickly became a means by which the Puritans condemned various groups
and behaviors antithetical to their credo, and when the King and his Church did not follow reform practices they too were condemned. One activity that was actively discouraged (and later forbidden) was the participation in and attendance of the theatre.
The Puritan view of theatre was that it encouraged people to partake in activities for pleasure or leisure. To succumb to worldly pleasures such as this was sinful, and
in violation of biblical doctrine. Puritans felt that in order for Protestantism to be a devout religion people must rediscover the idea that the Bible was “all-sufficient”. Therefore the sensual pleasures of theatre, music, and dancing, were considered unnecessary
and even unholy.
In 1642, King Charles I was dethroned by the New Model Army, led by Oliver
Cromwell. He was beheaded seven years later. Cromwell, who was closely associated
with Parliament and the Puritan movement, became leader of the Republic Commonwealth and began to issue a long series of decrees aimed at constraining the intellectual
and social growth of the country. On the 6th of September 1642, all theaters across the
country were closed by ordinance. Following this, performances were held in secrecy for
many years, but as a consequence of such infractions a second order was issued in 1647.
This order threatened with imprisonment and punishment all that broke its enactments.
Further constraints on theatre and all its players followed thereafter. A third ordinance
declaring all actors to be rogues, and ordering that theatres be demolished soon followed the second. Should an actor be discovered performing, they were to be whipped
and degraded; any audience member was to be fined.
In 1660, Charles II, King of Scotland (who had fled England in 1651) reclaimed
the English throne, restored the monarchy, and reopened English theatres. It had been
an hiatus of eighteen years. This period when the monarchy was restored is known as the
Restoration, and it brought with it an entirely new order of things dramatic. Theaters
began to revive, plays were openly performed once more, and women, for the first time,
were allowed to perform onstage as actors.
Restoration drama is frequently defined by its comedies (rather than its serious
works) which are justly celebrated for their wit and humor, and which are categorized by
satirically rakish, and effete characters, extravagant mannerisms, and sexual innuendo,
outrageousness, and licentiousness. They are generally farces, satires and comedies of
manners. The “fop”—a foolish man obsessed with fashion, his appearance and clothing,
became a staple of the genre.
Oliver Cromwell
the company
Doctor Baliardo ................................................................................................ Miss Lydia Jimenez
Scaramouch (his man) ....................................................................................... Miss Christine Rose
Pedro (his boy) ..................................................................................................... Miss Esty Thomas
Don Cinthio ....................................................................................................... Mr William Vezinaw
Don Charmante ............................................................................................. Miss Melissa Martin
(both nephews to the viceroy, and lovers of Elaria and Bellemante)
Harlequin (Cinthio's man) ............................................................................... Miss Kelsey Burritt
Elaria (daughter to the doctor) ..................................................................... Mr Sullivan Kidder
Bellemante (niece to the doctor) ..................................................................... Mr Andrew Polec
Mopsophil (governante to the young ladies) ................................................... Mr John Amir-Fazli
Twelve persons representing the figures of the twelve signs of the zodiac (in alphabetical order)
Mr David Bang
Mr Greg Corrado
Miss Nina Desoi
Miss Grace Interlichia
Miss Sarah Joseph
Mr Amory Kisch
Mr Matt Myers
Miss Jacqueline O'Donnell
Miss Elizabeth O'Neil
Mr Mohammad Seraji
Mr Paul Vergara
Mr Doug Zeppenfeld
the scene
Naples
musical numbers
A curse upon that faithless maid .................... Miss Elaria
Chevalier ......................... Miss Bellemante
When maidens are young ................. Mr Sacaramouch
Song of the Zodiac (Hark! Hark, the music of the spheres) ........... Persons of the Moon
All joy to mortals ............... The Company
Q
D
How does Doctor Baliardo's
experience of literature separate him from the real world?
octor Baliardo, we are told, has
become "Don Quick-sottish"
—"infected" with "reading foolish books." Like Don Quixote before
him, Baliardo has replaced his own reality with an alternative one. He has done
so with the help of a relatively new technology: print had of course been made
possible by the advent of movable type
in the fifteenth century, but by the time
Don Quixote was published (the early
seventeenth century) it had only recently become widespread, as paper
became less expensive, and literacy
rates rose. In addition to print, of course,
Baliardo avails himself of another technology, the telescope (invented in the
early seventeenth century but steadily
perfected in the years following).
Through the combination of these two
an interview with prof. katherine mannheimer
then—the book and the optic lens—
Baliardo is able to "see" so clearly into
other spheres that he becomes increasingly untethered from his own terrestrial world. Rather, he is "transported"
by his visions of the lunar inhabitants:
he is "ecstasied" (from "ex"-"stasis,"
put out of place), "ravished" (from the
Old French "ravir," to snatch, to seize).
But if Baliardo's imagination has been
transported elsewhere, the bodily results of this process are all too physical:
he leaps, jumps, and skips for joy; he
kneels in prayer, falls on his face. The
effects of his inward, private obsession
is all too outward, all too public.
Baliardo's literal lunacy seems
an allegory, then, for several different
kinds of phenomena: absorptive reading, the raptures of erotic love, or any
process whereby fantasy both "replaces" material reality but also manifests itself on the material body—any process
whereby one's most inward, private
experiences ultimately play themselves
out in the public sphere. Indeed, this
relationship of mind to body and public
to private is one that our own historical
juncture seems particularly concerned
with: what are the consequences of the
fact that so much of our lives are now
lived not "on earth," but in "the ether"
—that for many, an event might not feel
fully real until it has been registered via
a blog entry, a Facebook posting, a
Tweet? of the fact that "Second Life"
might threaten to be more primary to
many people than their "first" life? Are
our bodies and minds becoming increasingly detached from one another,
or are our bodies in the process of being transformed by these new technologies of sight and imagination? Are
these new interfaces replacing public
forums, or creating new ones? And
what does it mean to explore these
questions via another sphere in which
the relationship between inner and
outer is constantly being renegotiated
—the theatre?
T
Q
Why do you think Behn chose to center her
play around a character like Baliardo? Is he a
representation of her, or of her time?
his is really fascinating. I guess
my "simple" answer would be
that in many ways he is exemplary of a certain "type" in Restoration
comedy: the patriarch who stands in
the way of sexual freedom, the liberation of women, and the passing
of power from one generation to the
next, but with whom, ultimately, a series of clever stratagems can easily dispatch. We see this figure everywhere
in comedy of the time: the father who
guards his daughters/nieces like a
hawk, who opposes this or that marriage, or who keeps his wife under lock
and key. This figure always provides
the starting-point for comedy, because
the other characters must figure out a
way to outwit him in order to free up
the flow of sexual energies and inheritances. Baliardo provides a particularly
great version of this figure because
(a) he's already blind to what's going
on around him, allowing for greater license among the other characters; (b)
he arrives onstage complete with his
own set of secondary characters and
scenarios—the lunar inhabitants and
their "love-fits"—which provide extra
spectacular material for Behn.