On 5 October we gathered in St Peter’s Anglican Church in Canterbury to read Aphra Behn’s 1673 play The Dutch Lover, under the direction of Stewart Ross. It’s a long play with a massive cast, and attempting to read it with 13 people soon exposed how complicated and farcical it is. Prepare for a riot […]
As part of this year’s Canterbury Festival, The Aphra Behn Society of Canterbury presented The Masks of Aphra Behn. An audience of around 150 people gathered in St Paul’s-without-the-Walls Church, Canterbury, the very church where Aphra’s parents were married, to enjoy this one-woman show, written and performed by Claire Louise Amias and using excerpts from […]
In a sold-out Anselm Studio 1 on the Canterbury Christ Church University campus, we were taken back in time for – as the programme put it – a ‘Cornucopial Enticementation of Words by Mrs Aphra Behn with Musick by the finest Composers of her Age’. The evening included scenes and speeches from The Amorous Prince, […]
Aphra Behn may be best known for her plays, but she also wrote some fascinating poetry – and not all of it as risqué as her reputation suggests. On 18 November 2023, Professor Elaine Hobby and Dr Astrid Stilma led a workshop on Behn’s intriguing poem ‘A Paraphrase upon the Lord’s Prayer’, first published in […]
A fantastic visit back to Canterbury and the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge to spend the day researching inspirational Kent women through the ages. Led by digital humanities expert Dr Catriona Cooper and facilitator and content curator Helen Crutcher, the group took the life of Aphra Behn, plus a guided tour of the Beaney's […]
The popular series of readings of plays by Canterbury playwrights continues with Behn’s delightfully frank political and social satire.