Ros Ballaster
speaker
171 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 6 Aug
Ros Ballaster’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Well, as Jan said, it seems likely that it's this connection with Thomas Killigrew.
We know that in her novel that she publishes in 1688 called Orinoco, Afra Ben mentions that she sent some Indian feathers from Suriname to Killigrew, to the King's company, for a performance.
And so I think she has connections with the stage.
And I suppose what Jan's outlined here is a situation where she clearly wasn't making money through the other careers that she tried.
Spying wasn't working.
And she doesn't seem to have been a very effective spy.
So I think she turns to the stage to try and earn money.
She probably looks at models like John Dryden and Thomas Shadwell, who were the rising professionals in the stage at the time.
I think it's worth understanding what the theatre's like in this period.
It's an entirely different kind of theatre.
I mean, lots of people sort of say, this isn't just a revival or a restoration, it's a reinvention of theatre.
Charles II does two things that are very significant.
He gives two patents to two companies that are called the Duke's Company and the King's Company.
Killigrew runs the King's Company.
Davenant runs the Duke's Company.
All of Ben's plays until 1682 are performed by the Duke's Company, interestingly.
So that's named after James, Duke of York, later James II.
And he seems to have been...
the member of the royal family, the monarch that Ben was most loyal to.
Okay, so it's a patent theatre.
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