If ever a play managed to successfully translate philosophy and the musings of postmodern thinkers to its audience without actually being professorial, it is Tom Stoppard’s audience-friendly Arcadia, showing at the Duke of York Theatre in London. This rendition of Arcadia effectively combines two sets of characters from two different epochs of the early nineteenth century, and the present day (Arcadia was written in 1993).
Both of these groupings find themselves inhabitants of a very large country house in Derbyshire and the clash of modern and postmodern here couldn’t be clearer. The set of characters from 1809 center around Thomasina, an extraordinarily bright young teenager, her tutor, Septimus Hodge, and his off-stage friend Lord Byron.
Together they try to piece together mathematical algebraic mysteries but find it difficult because at that point in time, all maths, arts and sciences still revolved around the modern and linear way of thinking. They played on the certainty of Newton’s laws and pretence of correctness in personal behaviour. Thomasina’s intellect is such that she can comfortably argue with her very bright tutor and inevitably she also makes teenage advances.
Thomasina’s tutor in the meantime is caught in a world of sexual intrigue with another of the guests much to the annoyance of the husband; challenges and duels ensue. This series of sub plots is then played out in the postmodern setting.
The more contemporaneous characters center on scholar Bernard Nightingale who is obsessed with the poet Lord Byron, and Hannah Jarvis, a middle aged author who is played by Samantha Bond. The actor Neil Pearson plays Nightingale as an enthusiastic and excitable academic, and charms the audience with his wit and supreme confidence. In contrast, Bond makes an interesting juxtaposition and plays Jarvis as neurotic, sharp and unforgiving, and is humorous in an unknowing way.
The postmodern characters are louder, their actions and even the way they move in staccato-like ways and constantly talk over and interrupt each other contrast nicely to the modernist set of characters, who are all plaid and graceful in their period costumes and take time to listen and understand each other.
The narrative of the younger woman and the older man is also lost in the postmodern set of characters, and Stoppard produces contemporary couples that clearly challenge traditional and moral views. There is a young man, Valentine Coverly, who is desperate to make love to an older woman, Hannah Jarvis, and a very young girl, Chloë Coverly, who is desperate to make love to Nightingale.
As well as being about the lives of different characters and solving Bernard’s Lord Byron mystery, this play uses the reality of how science and maths have changed from orderly, predictable and linear in the eighteenth century to unpredictable, chaotic and delinear rules of today.
The play is wonderfully witty and keeps the audience intellectually engaged for its three hour duration. The acting was flawless and believable and the actors used the one setting of the garden room well. The actor that stood out the most was undoubtedly Neil Pearson, playing Nightingale – he received raucous laughter at nearly every other line. Also well cast was Valentine Coverly, played by Ed Stoppard, who interestingly is the son of playwright Tom Stoppard. Ed Stoppard’s chiselled cheekbones, dry sense of self and platonic yet fiery relationship with Hannah Jarvis certainly captivated the audience.
One criticism is that at times, some of the innuendos were slightly too intellectual or academic, and often went sailing over the audience’s heads. But then this is a play that an audience could see several times, and take different insights from each performance.
Both of these groupings find themselves inhabitants of a very large country house in Derbyshire and the clash of modern and postmodern here couldn’t be clearer. The set of characters from 1809 center around Thomasina, an extraordinarily bright young teenager, her tutor, Septimus Hodge, and his off-stage friend Lord Byron.
Together they try to piece together mathematical algebraic mysteries but find it difficult because at that point in time, all maths, arts and sciences still revolved around the modern and linear way of thinking. They played on the certainty of Newton’s laws and pretence of correctness in personal behaviour. Thomasina’s intellect is such that she can comfortably argue with her very bright tutor and inevitably she also makes teenage advances.
Thomasina’s tutor in the meantime is caught in a world of sexual intrigue with another of the guests much to the annoyance of the husband; challenges and duels ensue. This series of sub plots is then played out in the postmodern setting.
The more contemporaneous characters center on scholar Bernard Nightingale who is obsessed with the poet Lord Byron, and Hannah Jarvis, a middle aged author who is played by Samantha Bond. The actor Neil Pearson plays Nightingale as an enthusiastic and excitable academic, and charms the audience with his wit and supreme confidence. In contrast, Bond makes an interesting juxtaposition and plays Jarvis as neurotic, sharp and unforgiving, and is humorous in an unknowing way.
The postmodern characters are louder, their actions and even the way they move in staccato-like ways and constantly talk over and interrupt each other contrast nicely to the modernist set of characters, who are all plaid and graceful in their period costumes and take time to listen and understand each other.
The narrative of the younger woman and the older man is also lost in the postmodern set of characters, and Stoppard produces contemporary couples that clearly challenge traditional and moral views. There is a young man, Valentine Coverly, who is desperate to make love to an older woman, Hannah Jarvis, and a very young girl, Chloë Coverly, who is desperate to make love to Nightingale.
As well as being about the lives of different characters and solving Bernard’s Lord Byron mystery, this play uses the reality of how science and maths have changed from orderly, predictable and linear in the eighteenth century to unpredictable, chaotic and delinear rules of today.
The play is wonderfully witty and keeps the audience intellectually engaged for its three hour duration. The acting was flawless and believable and the actors used the one setting of the garden room well. The actor that stood out the most was undoubtedly Neil Pearson, playing Nightingale – he received raucous laughter at nearly every other line. Also well cast was Valentine Coverly, played by Ed Stoppard, who interestingly is the son of playwright Tom Stoppard. Ed Stoppard’s chiselled cheekbones, dry sense of self and platonic yet fiery relationship with Hannah Jarvis certainly captivated the audience.
One criticism is that at times, some of the innuendos were slightly too intellectual or academic, and often went sailing over the audience’s heads. But then this is a play that an audience could see several times, and take different insights from each performance.
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