Reviewed
by Will Stackman
The choice of Tom
Stoppard's time-spanning drama "Arcadia" for the Publick Theatre's first
non-Shakespearean drama in recent seasons was inspired. Not only does this
script suit their motto, "demonstrating the power of the spoken
word," but director Diego Arciniegas has assembled a cast from the regular company and local actors which
suits the play remarkably well. Producing director Susanne Nitter has an ideal role as donnish writer Hannah Jarvis,
researching the history of Lord Croom's country estate and gardens, while a
guest of his wife. Jarvis recently published an analysis of the novels of Lady
Caroline Lamb, Byron's mistress. Nigel Gore, seen this winter in Sugan's Norton Award-winning
"Sanctuary Lamp"--and just back from doing the Scottish play on the
West Coast--is a rival, Professor Bernard Nightingale, hoping to capitalize on
Jarvis' current research while pursuing his own theories about Byron. He
dismissed her book in print, incidentally. These two are the center of the
action in the present, handling Stoppard's academic repartee in grand style.
In the past, early
in the 19th century at the same location, the daughter of the then Lord Croom,
teenage Thomasina Coverly played by Ellen Adair, is learning algebra from her tutor, Septimus Hodge,
a rakish young University man, played by Lewis Wheeler. Hodge's been romancing various ladies, including the
roundheeled wife of a local poet, Ezra Chater, played by Owen Doyle, guesting there with his wife. He's just published a
second poetic narrative. Hodge, whose brother publishes a London periodical,
wrote a scathing review of Chater's first effort, unbeknownst to the erstwhile
poet. Thomasina's mother, Lady Croom, played by Caroline Lawton has her eye on youthful Hodge. her Her brother,
dashing Captain Brice, played by Bill Mootos in full nautical regalia, has set his sights on Mrs.
Chater. That lady incidentally is among the characters never seen onstage.
Other offstage presences include Lord Croom and eventually, Hodge's schoolmate,
George Gordon, Lord Byron, on whom Thomasina develops a crush. Among those
present, to Lady Croom's dismay however, is Gerard Slattery as Noakes, a landscape designer whom her husband is
having convert the estate grounds from Arcadian tranquility to Romantic
wilderness, complete with a hermitage. The servants are represented by Jellaby
the butler, played impeccably by PT regular Bill Gardiner.
Back in the
present, the Coverly family consists first of Valentine, an intense young
mathematician played by Eric Hamel,
who refers to Hannah, two decades his senior, as his fiance. Then there's his
hoydenish sister, Chloe, played by Joy Lamberton, who develops a crush on Nightingale. Their pathologically
shy younger brother Gus, played by Will Ford, a student in PT's Young Company for the past two
summers, never speaks, but pays keen attention to what's going on. He's the
only cast member who appears in both periods, showing up in the second act as
haughty Augustus, Thomasina's brother, a small but important role which figures
in final blending of the past and the present. There are no servants. Chloe
apparently runs the house while her mother gardens. Neither modern parent
appears.
As with most of
Stoppard's plays, this 1993 script operates at several levels.
"Arcadia" is at once a period country-house comedy, admirably suited
to Publick's outdoor arena and an academic puzzle concerning the hermitage. In
addition the drama poses the paradox of time and the nature of mathematics,
suggesting that young Thomasina, a naive genius, was on the verge of
discovering something like fractal geometry. The girl was also considering the
one-way flow of time and the possibly erotic nature of the universe. Stoppard
demonstrates to his audience that the only currently effective form of
time-travel is imagination. Arciniegas skillfully juggles the comic
machinations of both the plot concerning Chater and his errant wife and
Nightingale's discovery that Lord Byron was also present, which leads the
ambitious academic to jump to an obvious and erroneous conclusion. There are
also surprising revelations about the probable intertwined fates of Thomasina
and Septimus. This is a piece of theatre that cries out for a second viewing,
before or after reading or rereading the script. It's entirely appropriate that
a company which developed around contemporary presentations of Shakespeare
should set about to untangle Stoppard's complexities clearly and consistently.
For this year's
season Publick returns to a unit set, planned by Arciniegas and production
manager C. Russ Fletcher, with Brianne
Brutinel as associate designer. The
setting features a backdrop of huge pillars, which separate the action inside
the mansion from the gardens beyond, in this case real trees growing along the
Charles. The arrangement will also serve for "The Comedy of Errors"
which joins a weekly rotation July 21st. The believable and wearable, not to
mention handsome, period costumes by Emerson's Rafael Jaen bring the past to life, while his contemporary garb
provides a clear contrast. Period blurs appropriately at the play's climax as
the modern's don early 19th century garb for a summer fete out in the current
Lady Croom's garden. John Doerschuk's
wide-ranging sound effects, from birds and gunshots to period piano, contribute
much to the show as does Anthony R. Phelps' clear lighting. The intimate yet expansive setting in Publick's
outdoor arena suits the play better than Huntington's proscenium did several
seasons ago. It will be interesting to see how Longwood's production this fall
works out in historic Durrell Hall in Cambridge.