‘Arcadia:’ The Art of Sublime

Though the name refers to the Greek ideal of pastoral simplicity, the unusual beauty of Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” is anything but simple. Blending history and historical research, Enlightenment and Romantic landscape, literature, gossip, wit, chaos theory and fractals, (how many plays have you seen that employ their own mathematics consultant?) and sex, the master weaver of these threads creates a rich tapestry of unforgettable theatre.

Now in an extended run through June 21, “Arcadia,” directed by Helen Hays
Award winner Aaron Posner, dazzles. That’s not to say that everyone will “get it.” “Arcadia” requires active listening or, like one lady I overheard complained, you may end up wondering “what was that about?” But Tom Stoppard’s name alone should be a caution label that signals multiple intensely original interwoven ideas ahead.

The Sidley Park estate from 1809 to 1812 overlaps with the Sidley Park descendants and historical researchers of the present. One set, Daniel Conway’s elegantly symmetrical study, lighted by Thom Weaver’s design, serves both periods. The young prodigy, Thomasina Coverly (Erin Weaver) interrogates her tutor Septimus Hodge (Cody Nickell) on everything from mathematical possibilities to the meaning of “carnal embrace.” Gossip about Hodge’s friend, Lord Byron, keeps the household in a dither, and the overheated Ezra Chater (Cooper D’Ambrose) challenges Septimus to a duel. Lady Croom (Suzanne O’Donnell) provides droll commentary on the new style of wildly picturesque landscaping complete with fountains and a hermitage.

Through the conflicts, questions, comings and goings of the early 19th century Coverly family, we are prepared to meet the 21st century Coverlys and the researchers who descend upon the estate.

Hannah Jarvis, played by Holly Twyford with her signature diamond clarity and sharpness, has come to research the “Sidley Park hermit.” Meanwhile, Bernard Nightingale (Eric Hissom), a professor and specialist in all things Byronic, has schmoozed his way in to uncover any possible tidbit on Byron and leaps headlong to conclusions. Valentine Coverly (Peter Stray) hopelessly smitten with Hannah, finds his intellectual niche in the centuries old game records kept in the house library. And through it all, Thomasina’s astonishing mathematical questions draw us closer to some dizzy outer point that began with an equation for the universe.

But “Arcadia” isn’t about Byron, or the hermit, or landscaping, an affair in the gazebo with Mrs. Chater, or even math. It has more to do with the need to know, the endless inquiry that is the birthright of all humans. We see it in Thomasina’s precocious investigations, in talk of Mr. Noakes great loud steam machine, and we see it two hundred years later as researchers patiently read the delicate braille of history, sometimes stumbling, sometimes uncovering tiny gems. But is identifying the Sidley Park hermit really important? Does it matter if Byron shot Ezra Chater? Perhaps Nightingale sums it up best when he says “It’s the wanting to know that makes us matter.”

In Stoppard’s universe, we in the audience hold a privileged place. We can move backward and forward in time, know the future, see the past, and god-like, witness the half-blind searching of humans two centuries apart. We know what they’re looking for and sometimes we even know the answers. Like Valentine feeding Thomasina’s theoretical equations into his computer and staring, mesmerized, at the result, the sense of discovery can be jolting.

“Arcadia” has for years been my secret love of plays, and to see the Folger production doing justice to the intellect, wit, and devastating beauty of this script is to reignite a passion for what theatre can do.

Margaret Lawrence is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association. She teaches drama at CCHS.

Want to go?
What: “Arcadia” by Tom Stoppard
Where: Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
Call: (202) 675-0342 or visit folger.edu
Playing through June 21