Hovey Players closes out season with funny, fiery restoration bedroom farce

Hovey Players is closing their 2015-2016 Season with the premiere of “Or" by Liz Duffy Adams, directed by Kristin Hughes of Belmont, Massachusetts.

"Or" was described by The New York Times as being “a playful, funny and inventive comedy and Hovey's current production running at the Abbott Memorial theater on Spring Street is receiving exceptionally high praise for staging this relatively unknown piece.

Aphra Behn (portrayed by Jenny Fielding of Methuen, Mass) is England's first female professional playwright and a spy. She's just quit the business to write her first play, and she's on deadline when her former lover William (portrayed by Kendall Hodder of Woburn, Mass) blazes in with enemies on his heels. To complicate things, the city's hottest actress, Nell Gwynne (portrayed by Kristen Dattoli of Waltham, Mass), is getting awfully friendly, and, for that matter, so is the king—as in Charles II. Set in Restoration England, this playful farce is a rush of mad-cap antics, gender bending, and rollicking intrigue.

Tying together the past and present makes sense in the world of “Or,” whose title emphasizes Aphra Behn’s bridging of dichotomies. This groundbreaking playwright moved from a life of action to a life of art; she wrote mostly comedies in an era that saw war, disease and the Great Fire of London; she endured Puritan repression, then found her own liberty; and she was a successful female professional in what was still a man’s world. Adams suggests that the story is distinctive, but also universal. As the prologue notes: “Ors divide less than they subtly link. We all embody opposites within.”

"Or" at Hovey Players is running through May 28. Tickets and more information can be found at www.hoveyplayers.com