Aphra Behn

2023-02-27

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With Lynsey Shaw inside the Heroine City gates today we have Claire Louise Amias. Actor, director and playwright, Claire is the star of her self-penned one woman show, The Masks of Aphra Behn, which explores the fascinating and pioneering life of the 17th Century spy and Restoration writer of its title.Behn was arguably the first professional female writer. After a failed marriage and a stint as a spy for Charles II, Behn began writing as a means to financial autonomy and lifelong independence. What followed was a...

With Lynsey Shaw inside the Heroine City gates today we have Claire Louise Amias. Actor, director and playwright, Claire is the star of her self-penned one woman show, The Masks of Aphra Behn, which explores the fascinating and pioneering life of the 17th Century spy and Restoration writer of its title.

Behn was arguably the first professional female writer. After a failed marriage and a stint as a spy for Charles II, Behn began writing as a means to financial autonomy and lifelong independence. What followed was a prolific, trailblazing career during which she created the Restoration play, The Rover (1677) and, arguably, the first ever novel, Oroonoko (1688), the first in English to feature a black, enslaved African as its protagonist.

Virginia Woolf famously wrote, “All women together ought to let flowers fall on the tomb of Aphra Behn . . . For it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.”

A is For Aphra Statue Campaign: https://www.aisforaphra.org/

Find out more about Claire's work here: https://www.amonkeywithcymbals.co.uk/

Warning: Contains discussion of sexual violence.

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