Reviewed by James
Karas
PAY ATTENTION!
That is the first bit
of advice you should take to heart if you got to the Shaw Festival and see Tom
Stoppard’s Arcadia. It is produced in the small Studio Theatre and it is
sold out but don’t hesitate to use bribery and corruption to get a ticket.
The recommendation to
pay attention is given freely and generously for your own good. Arcadia is a brilliant, brainy, funny,
stimulating and challenging play and by paying strict attention, you will
increase your chances of getting most of the lines, references and ideas that
it throws at you like darts. OK, look at it as mental gymnastics – it will make
you smarter.
Arcadia takes place in 1809-1812 and the present with alternating scenes
between the two periods but all done on one
set. The 19th century characters live in Sidley Park, a stately
mansion in England, and deal with science and art; the encounter of classicism
with romanticism; theories of the universe; theories about garden designs and a
few other such light subjects. Stoppard has the genius to deal with such
subjects and make them entertaining and funny.
The characters who
live in the present are researching the 19th century occupants of
Sidley Park including the possibility that Lord Byron stayed there and killed a
minor poet named Ezra Chater (Andrew Bunker) in a duel after seducing his wife.
Stoppard provides a
number of juicy characters and director Eda Homes takes advantage of them and
gives us a fast-paced and extremely well done journey of wit and tantalizing
ideas.
Thomasina Coverly
(Kate Besworth) and Septimus Hodge (Gray Powell) dominate the 19th century
scenes. She is a teenage genius who argues against the Newtonian view of the
universe and he is her tutor who tries to keep up with her. It is not all
intellectual pursuits – far from it. Septimus has seduced Chater’s wife (who
hasn’t?) and there are sexual as well as intellectual liaisons.
The synergies
displayed by the actors, like the wit and cerebral pyrotechnics, are
breathtaking. Besworth and Hodge drive the play with Nicole Underhay providing
a sexy and splendid Lady Crooom.
The present-day
characters are engaged in detective work as Bernard Nightingale (Patrick
McManus) tries to piece together a story about Lord Byron. McManus is given
free range by Stoppard and Holmes to emote to the point of deliriously
delightful overacting as does to a lesser but equally enjoyable extent Diana
Donnelly as Hannah Jarvis, a popular author.
Arcadia is a deliciously
complex play and requires sustained attention by the actors and it stands
Holmes in good stead that she is able to marshal the company into a marvelous
ensemble providing theatre of the mind and the heart at its best. I was so
wrapped up in the plot, the wit, the histrionic speed that I almost did not
notice that most of the English accents were less than perfect.
GO SEE IT.
That is my second
piece of advice given once again freely and most generously and solely for the
purpose of directing you to an exceptional theatrical experience.
_____
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard runs in repertory until September 7, 2013 at the Studio Theatre,
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com.
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