Arcadia Review: Love, Gardening, and Euclidian Geometry Collide in Tom Stoppard's Cosmic Masterpiece
At The Old Vic in London, Tom Stoppard's celebrated play Arcadia is currently captivating audiences with its unique blend of romance, mathematics, and landscape gardening. Often hailed as the playwright's finest work, this drama is stuffed with knowledge and intellectual depth, offering a cosmic exploration of life and the universe.
A Timeless Narrative Across Centuries
The play unfolds in a single room, seamlessly alternating between the 19th century and the 1980s. Director Carrie Cracknell masterfully suggests that these two eras are merely a hair's breadth apart, with characters from different times almost brushing past each other. This clever staging creates a sense of interconnectedness that enhances the play's themes of discovery and mystery.
The story begins with the teenage prodigy Thomasina Coverly, portrayed by Isis Hainsworth, engaging in heartfelt and amusing dialogue with her tutor Septimus Hodge, played by Seamus Dillane. Their interactions are not only intellectually stimulating but also tenderly romantic, as Thomasina seeks to unravel the world's mysteries through algebraic equations. The slow-burning flirtation between them adds a moving and sparky layer to the narrative.
Intellectual Intrigue and Detective Story Elements
Parallel to the historical scenes, the play's present-day setting features academics on a quest to uncover Thomasina's lost story, alongside subplots involving the roguish Romantic poet Lord Byron. Stoppard himself described Arcadia as having a detective story quality, and Cracknell's production embodies this with a lovely searching essence. It transforms the traditional country-house drama into a cerebral experience filled with intellectual piques and intrigues.
Alex Eales' elegant set design further elevates the production, turning the single room into a galaxy with overhanging planetary ellipses and oversized atoms. A barely perceptible revolve mimics the Earth's rotation, symbolising the play's grand themes. Characters delve into discussions on thermodynamics, Euclidian geometry, and the algebra of a leaf, with these complex ideas glimmering like conceptual holograms that waver just out of reach.
Exuberant Realisation and Cerebral Challenges
The actors bring even the most arcane lines to life with a spirit of playful romance, making the dense subject matter accessible and engaging. Arcadia is fundamentally a drama about knowledge and hermeneutics, where the unknown languages of Newtonian physics and mathematics gleam with excitement. Stoppard's dexterity in handling complex ideas ensures that audiences are enthralled, regardless of their understanding.
However, the present-day scenario, involving academics like Bernard Nightingale and Hannah Jarvis, is somewhat weaker in drama and can feel glib. These scenes, focused on scholarly debates and flirtations, occasionally stall the play's pace and lack the tender chemistry of the historical narrative. Despite this, the production maintains an inbuilt exuberance, invigoratingly realised like a complicated piece of algebra that remains exquisite in its difficulties.
A Must-See Theatrical Experience
Overall, this production of Arcadia at The Old Vic is a testament to Stoppard's genius, offering a heady mix of abstraction, intelligence, and cerebral intensity. It runs until 21 March, providing London theatregoers with an opportunity to witness a masterpiece that continues to resonate with its exploration of love, science, and the human condition.
