I recently received the new issue of Theatre Notebook, which includes an article by Kate Aughterson on street scenography in Aphra Behn's play The Rover.
According to Aughterson, when Hellena says in the first scene, "let's ramble," there is an implied sexual connotation for audiences of Restoration drama. Public streets could be places for licentiousness, and women walking the streets publicly might be seen as willing prey for men.
However, Aughterson argues that the play shows female characters using what the philosopher Michel de Certeau referred to as "tactics" that push back against the social standards the general culture imposes on individuals. While streets were often considered male spaces, the women in The Rover sometimes assert themselves there, frequently with the aid of masks or disguises.
Half of the scenes in The Rover, 8 out of 16, take place on the street. This is more than any other Behn play, though her 1681 sequel to the original play comes close with 5 out of 12 scenes taking place on the street. Some scenes even specify a particular type of street scenography, calling for a "long street" which might have used all of the theatre's side shutters, each set of shutters partially open with a different piece of painted scenery, allowing for a sense of perspective.
The famous Molo in Naples, which juts out into the harbor, provides the location of an important scene in Act 4, and reputedly Behn had a special backdrop painted just for this scene. This is the scene with the play's famous duel, which stages a distinctly masculine action, but women are present in the scene as well. At the end Angellica even plots her revenge on Willmore, declaring: "Then since I am not fit to belov’d, / I am resolv’d to think on a revenge / On him that sooth’d me thus to my undoing."
In any case, it's good to see such interesting research being done on Behn. She'd been garnering a lot of attention lately, and there are even plans to erect a statue of her in her hometown of Canterbury, England. That would be nice to see!
