Sisters Seek True Love in Rollicking ‘Rover’

England’s first professional female writer, Aphra Behn, had a life filled with more intrigue than Mata Hari. She spied for the English while in the Netherlands and was thrown into debtors’ prison after her return. When she did write, it wasn’t with ladylike prettiness.

In the boisterously fun, sexually suggestive production of Behn’s rollicking, randy “The Rover,” at the Knightsbridge Theatre, three sisters search for adventure and true love at a carnival in the Spanish Indies during the 1670s.

Florinda (Harmony Goodman) is in love with the poor but respectable mercenary Belvile (Robert Cecchino). Her brother, Don Pedro (Tom Chick), hopes to marry her off to the viceroy’s son, Don Antonio (Felipe Alejandro), while their father, who favors another, is away. The more reserved sister, Valeria (Polly Harrison), convinces Florinda and their adventurous sibling Hellena (Julieanna Laffer) to dress as Gypsies and join the lusty revels during the pre-Lent celebrations.

Disguised, they meet Belvile and his friends--the inconstant, blustering Willmore (Joseph P. Stachura), the foppish gentleman Blunt (Brian Caspe) and the more sensible Frederick (Jason Cole).

Florinda and Belvile scheme to elope, only to be thwarted by her brother. Willmore flirts with one pseudo-Gypsy and seduces the fire-breathing courtesan Angellica Bianca (Rebecca Luchy). Identities are mistaken; swords are crossed (choreographed by Julie Anne Terrell); hearts are won or broken.

Stachura is full of brash boasts that are well-matched by Luchy’s sympathetic spitfire. Caspe is unabashedly foolish as the dandy taken for even the clothes on his back. Director Tia Odiam fills the stage with almost more swashbuckling and swagger than it can hold.

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* “The Rover,” Knightsbridge Theatre, 35 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. Saturdays, 5 p.m.; Sundays, 6 p.m. Ends Jan. 10. $15. (626) 440-0821. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.