Or, takes place (mostly) during one night in the life of Aphra Behn, the poet, spy, and soon-to-be first professional female playwright.  Sprung from debtors’ prison after a disastrous overseas mission, Aphra is desperate to get out of the spy trade. Her play has a shot at a production at one of only two London companies, if she can only finish it by morning.  But she is contending with interruptions from sudden new love, actress Nell Gwynne; complicated royal love, King Charles II; and very dodgy ex-love, double-agent William Scott—who may be in on a plot to murder the king in the morning.  Can Aphra save Charles’ life, win William a pardon, resist Nell’s charms, and launch her career, all in one night?  Against a background of a long drawn-out war and a counter-culture of free love, cross-dressing, and pastoral lyricism, the 1660s look a lot like the 1960s in this neo-Restoration comedy by Liz Duffy Adams, the playwright the San Francisco Bay Guardian called “an artist of playful and highly literate imagination, radical instincts, and sardonic but generous humor.”

It is 1649, one year after the End Of Theatre–a severe decree that ordered the closure of all London theatres, demolition of theatre seating, and fines for spectators. Fourteen-year-old Nim Dullyn has just witnessed his first DROLL, an underground performance of comedic excerpts from famous plays. Seduced by the magic of the stage, Nim sets out for the Cittie with this illegal theatrical troupe. He is pursued by the beastly Roundheads–fundamentalists who deem theatre an abomination during this time of Sicknesse and Troubles. Inspired by the theatre closures of Puritan England, The Droll asks: what evil would you do in the name of laughter?