"Arcadia's"Challenge--an Intellectual Conundrum
by Sylvia S. Cutler, December 20, 1996

The audience at Arena Stage was composed of two segments those who understood what Tom Stoppard's play "Arcadia" was all about, and those who didn't. The ones who didn't, dozed.

Even if you do have some notion about Fermat's Last Theorem and the principles on which eighteenth and nineteenth-century landscape gardens are based, you may want to purchase a copy of Tom Stoppard's script in the Fichandler lobby, and bring a dictionary so you can read the program. You may find yourself confronting the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the reasons that Lord Byron fled from England in 1809, and the overwhelming desire of a thirteen-year-old English "lady" to achieve some kind of freedom in an age when freedom, was not available to any woman.

In its simplest definition, "Arcadia" is two plays in one--one the lives of a family in this house circa 1803, and the second, the lives of their descendants in the same house in the present day.

Ezra Chater (David Marks) was a minor, very, very minor poet at that period of time, and had had a passing acquaintanceship with the poet Byron. who even in his twenties had cut a wide swath through England with drinking, carousing, womanizing, and perhaps even homosexuality; was heavily in debt, and in essence, had to "get out of town." But rank mattered, and his friendship was valued by the shallow Chater. Chater's wife had been caught in the garden romancing Septimus Hodge (J. Paul Boehmer), Thomasina Coverly's (Wendy Hoopes) tutor. So clever was Dodge at explaining away their peccadilloes, he made the episode seem like a favor to Chater; so Chater autographed his book of poems and gave it in gratitude to Hodge.

Conversation flowed quickly, roaming from topic to topic--gardens (Tana Hicken as Lady Croom declared that landscape architect Richard Noakes (Wendell Wright) should design her garden with the requisite number of trees and shrubs arranged artistically and neatly with the requisite number of sheep to punctuate the landscape), mathematics, literature, romance, and whatever the upper class of England thought was worthy of their attention.

Almost two centuries later, the heirs are sitting around the same magnificent table in the same room, surrounded by the same parquet floors and books on every surface. And what are they discussing? Valentine Coverly (Alex Draper) is trying to work out a formula to predict grouse populations, while visitor Bernard Nightingale (Terrence Caza) ingratiates himself with the family in an effort to research their existing papers and learn enough about Ezra Chater and his relationship with Byron to publish his own book, (Publish or perish!) Chloe Coverly (Holly Twyford) is trying hard to hold on to her estate and her sanity, as she is beset by strangers all seeking something. The only constant is Michael Barry who plays the young son, Gus Coverly in one segment and Augustus Coverly in the other.

The scenes from past and present follow one another, and eventually the two realities collide in a ritual dance. In the end, one wonders what has been proven, what resolved. The interesting factor in this play is that complex as it is, it seems to make a great deal of sense; it is poetic; cleverly crafted, with great lines. And, of course, superbly directed and acted.

"Arcadia" received its American premiere in New York in March, 1995 to widespread critical acclaim, won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and was nominated for a Tony. You might be well advised to drop into Arene Stage one evening, buy a script and read it, before you see the play. Tom Stoppard does not make it easy.

"Arcadia" runs through January 19. For further information or to order tickets, call 202-488-3300

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