Loveday Ingram's The Rover

The Rover, directed by Loveday Ingram, was a lively production with an intense carnival and audience engagement. Surprisingly, the goal of the play was muddy and left me concerned as to whether or not this was a show that the audience interpreted as a feminist production; did the audience understand the problems the director was attempting to address? As discussed in class, there was a lot of concern as to how the audience reacted to the scenes, especially the sexual assault scenes. However, the first thing that needs to be examined is how the groups of women and men were presented. The preshow opened with a fantastical carnival full of lust and debauchery. At this point, the men were introduced, unlike in the text. By doing so, it absolutely
For the men, a gray area was created. Willmore, for example, was adventurous, ruggedly sexy, and strangely charming. This was juxtaposed by how he treated the women around him, including the sexual assault scene between him and Florinda. Blunt, played by Leander Deeny, was another character that seemed difficult for the audience to distinguish because he did not fit the masculine standards that Willmore did: quick, cunning, smooth talker, fit, etc. In fact, Blunt had a stutter and was dumped into the sewer before he threatened Florinda with rape with another male character. This made the audience have empathy for him until that point where he “broke” and treated women like his friends did. Strangely this production was made to make people feel comfortable. It is easy to try and make yourself and an audience comfortable, but this play was meant to push boundaries. Even Director Ingram stated in her program note that the play was meant to take on the patriarchy and define feminism in this world. However, because the actors pandered directly to the audience and some of the serious scenes were not played truthfully, the production lacked the conviction to promote the ideas that Director Ingram