Performed and adapted by The Canterbury Players, this special production is one of handful events hosted by Canterbury’s Aphra Behn project, which aims to bring Aphra to a whole new audience, raise her profile and extend an understanding of her work.

Born in Canterbury in 1640, Aphra Behn was the first professional woman writer in English. She was of the most important English Restoration writers and one of the most significant women writers of any era.

Her writing was unique, sharp, witty and insightful of the politics and society conventions of the day. She wrote openly about desire, sex and same-sex attraction and was very forward thinking in terms of sexuality which was considered too scandalous for later audiences.

She wrote nearly 20 plays, two of the plays, The Rover (1677) and The Emperor of the Moon (1687), were performed on the London professional stage every season for 50 years, making her one of the most influential dramatists of the 17th century.

The Amorous Prince, or, The Curious Husband was considered a radical and shocking play as the husband Antonio uses his friend to test his wife’s virtues. The play explores the depravity and decadence of Charles II’s court, parodying the attitudes of high society.

There will be three performances of the play, July 2,3,4 at Anselm Studios, Canterbury Christ Church University.

Alongside this special production there will also be a series of talks in July on Aphra’s spying letters, Kentish beginnings and the making of the life-size bronze statue of Aphra Behn that will be erected in Canterbury High Street by the sculptor Christine Charlesworth. Using her own collection of photographs, Christine will tell the whole story of creating the bronze statue of Aphra Behn. Starting from her initial idea, through making the clay sculpture, casting in wax, pouring of the hot bronze into the ceramic moulds, welding the parts of the statue together, through to the final patination on the sandblasted surface and waxing of the finished Aphra.

For more information on the events and to book your tickets for the play and the talks, visit www.aphrabehn.org.uk .

Canterbury's Aphra Behn is delivered by Loughborough University and Canterbury Christ Church University, in partnership with the A is for Aphra campaign and the Aphra Behn Society of Canterbury. It is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation.