★★★★☆
Brits abroad, boozing, brawling and shagging (or trying to), roister through this rambunctious Restoration comedy. The play — by the trailblazing Aphra Behn, England’s first professional female writer — follows the overseas adventures of a band of Cavaliers during the exile of Charles II. For her sex-soaked, swashbuckling RSC production, Loveday Ingram gives the Neapolitan carnival setting a Latin American flavour. A roaming band plays steamy salsa and tango music; the stage teems with masked revellers, leering devils jostling with horned beasts. At the whirling centre, swaggering and priapic, is Joseph Millson as the Rover, raffish Captain Willmore. It’s terrific, riotous fun, the delicious froth tinged with tangy truths about the powerplay, pitfalls and pleasures of the game of love.
Millson — all sweaty,