Arcadia review: a vital testament to Tom Stoppard
A reverent stage revival of what might be the playwright’s greatest work.
Manuel Harlan
A reverent stage revival of what might be the playwright’s greatest work.
It’s fitting that the play currently on at the Duke of York’s theatre, the London venue which is soon to be renamed in Tom Stoppard’s honour, is by the great man himself. It’s even more fitting that the play in question is one that many consider to be his magnum opus.
Stoppard passed away last November, just before the revival of Arcadia went into rehearsals at the Old Vic. Said revival was so well-reviewed that a West End transfer was inevitable and, in its new setting, Carrie Cracknell’s production remains a vital testament to the man’s genius and his masterful way with words and ideas.
There are a lot of words and a myriad of ideas in the play, which premiered at the National Theatre in 1993. It has been widely praised as a musing on the relationship between the past and the present, and facts and the interpretation of them, as well as the conflict between chaos and order.
All of which might serve to make Arcadia sound like a head scratcher, but Stoppard weaves all his themes into a gripping, thought-provoking and altogether ingenious dialogue between two time periods.
Firstly we’re in 1809 on a Derbyshire estate, where 13-year-old maths progeny Thomasina Coverly fashions ideas about thermodynamics and the chaos theory under the tutelage of Septimus Hodge. Then we flit back and forth to the same estate in the present day, where academics Bernard Nightingale and Hannah Jarvis are at loggerheads over the notion that Lord Byron killed a poet there during a duel and Thomasina’s findings and Septimus’s fate are slowly uncovered.
Confused? Trust me, you won’t be. Cracknell’s reverent direction gives the near-three-hour play room to breathe. It is set in the round below a circular sculpture that’s lit to illuminate the passage of time, with minimal props and no scenery changes, but Suzanne Cave’s costumes give each time frame a clear visual identity. And Stoppard skilfully captures the way people used to talk and how they talk now, and the characters are fully realised – not mere mouthpieces for his many intriguing ideas.
The cast is excellent across the board, with Isis Hainsworth worthy of being singled out for her captivating performance as the teenage Thomasina. The fact that she’s in her late 20s makes her work here even more remarkable, just as Arcadia remains a remarkable piece of work from one of our greatest ever dramatists.
Arcadia is at the Duke of York’s Theatre until 12 September.
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