Arcadia
Arcadia By Tom Stoppard
Directed by Kate Ingram
Starring Abigale Cline, Eric Early, Madelyn James and Blain Edwards
Theatre UCF, Orlando FL</strong>
In “Arcadia”, Tom Stoppard has written perhaps the finest play about sex and differential equation ever. The action occurs in Sidley Park, a property in rural England still known today as a haven of rustic boredom. Septimus Hodge (Early) tutors precocious Thomasina Coverly (Cline), she’s just old enough to ask what “carnal embrace” means and he’s just edgy enough to explain it. And he should know: he was spotted in such a position with Lady Chater in the conservatory and so the gossip flies along with real dirt. Lord Crowley is redesigning the garden in the new rustic style under architect Richard Noakes (Kody Grasset). Lady Croom (Kimberly Hough) is up in arms; she prefers her stately lake to a crumbling hermitage. Chaos? In England? Heavens forbid! Meanwhile, the 20th century Sidley Park is run by the literary intelligentsia. Hanna (James) deconstructs the gardens and writes least selling books while her partner Valentine (Patrick Mouse) tries to model grouse hunting fluctuations with chaos theory. Their calm life is upset when weasley Bernard Nightingale (Edwards) snoops around for clues linking the Chater / Hodge duel to Lord Byron. Even 200 year old gossip still sells, and much better than all that dreary thermodynamics that Thomasina might have discovered.
The production is luminous and charming with humor flowing from both character and situation. Septimus and Thomasina form a cute if dangerous couple and we follow her from 14 to the eve of her marriage. She goes into adult life with more math and sex education than was typical. Mr. Chater is a fine cuckold, he fumes and duels but Hodge charms him away from causing any real danger. Lady Croom is elegant, imperious and unable to control her husband’s gardening escapades, which is more than can be said for Mr. Chater. There’s even a butler Jellaby (Jarrett Poore); he coordinates the gossip and collects the odd shilling here and half Guinea there for plot points and speculation. Amongst the moderns Valentine is no great lover but he’s tousled and willing to explain his work to anyone with an undergraduate degree in “maths.” The running spat between Hanna and Bernard is pure brilliance; she’s more interested identifying that critical 19th century hermit than discovering who was a second for the duel. Meanwhile Bernard is a scheming, backstabbing academic who hopes to turn a single line reference in a hunting log to lord Byron into a pop literary career. I give him points for getting on the BBC.
The connection between these two tribes revolves around what we know and how do we know it. Septimus and Thomasina still rely on divine revelation and family tradition, and the new set finds mathematics and data collection more useful. But either way all is uncertain, and both tribes are engaged in trying to corral that uncertainty. Yes, there will be a test, but it’s worth taking: under the insightful direction of Kate Ingram all will be made clear.
For more information on Theatre UCF visit http://www.theatre.ucf.edu
