Arcadia
It’s nice to be entertained by things that tickle your intellect, challenging you at the same time as you’re being thoroughly entertained by a well-crafted story. Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia manages that, captivating you in multiple ways. For a moment it gives the audience a chance to ponder the higher mathematics that underlies nature, the dynamics of human ingenuity and the (re)construction of history. By being consistently witty and intellectual without being dry, Arcadia is – to my mind at least – unique.
Stoppard interweaves a story of two periods and one setting in a way that both defines and goes further than the traditional concept of parallel structures: Not only are there characters engaged in illicit affairs in both time periods, there is a character who effectively steps from one period to another while crossing the stage. The constant references to literature, poetry and history mean that one gets more out of the play knowing more about the history of literature or romanticicsm (or the unfair world of academia), but I would argue that even as a kind of surface story about love, loss and genius it works. Assuming, of course, that you’re able to keep up with the rapid-fire delivery of both 19th-century upper-class English and contemporary academic colloquialisms.
The production at the Duke of York’s Theatre featured Stoppard’s own son Ed as the troubled mathematics graduate Valentine, as well as the stunningly beautiful Lucy Griffiths. We were seated in the very front row, which made for an intimate experience, though one that needed a bit of neck-craning. Though I did like the cast as a whole, Jessie Cave who played the character of Thomasina – an aristocratic girl who in her relentless quest for knowledge stumbles onto mathematical concepts she “couldn’t possibly have understood” – disappointed by being rather bratty and unbelievable. While I would expect to see a person clearly acting, she was overdoing it compared to the other members of the cast. As a whole, though, the cast was very good, especially the more veteran actors.
It really made me want to go to the theatre more. There’s something about a performance being put on live, right in front of your eyes, that makes good theatre worthy of praise (and money).
Oh yeah, and it made me realise why on Earth men of the time would wear morning dress as part of their daily attire. Being partly set in a country estate in April of 1809 I can only imagine how cold it would potentially be without a coat, even inside. Things really haven’t changed in 200 years.