Getting a leg up on Stoppard's Arcadia is, like, love
by Paige M. Travis
If intelligence were as sexy in real life as portrayed in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, young girls might want to grow up to be mathematicians and scientists instead of Britney Spears. While that won't happen in America anytime soon, it could happen in the world created in Arcadia, which ends its run this weekend at the Clarence Brown Theatre.
One of England's most celebrated playwrights, Stoppard is known to many people as the co-writer of the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love. The film is wordy, clever and charming—all Stoppard qualities that lend themselves to the big screen. Close-ups and surround sound systems make sure we catch every word (and explosion). But all these words present a challenge to a live audience at Arcadia, to listen carefully to pick up and follow all the intricate ideas.
The story is roughly this: Two modern-day British historians cross paths at an English manor called Sidney Park. Hannah Jarvis (Bonnie Gould) is studying the remains of the garden and the supposed existence of a hermit who lived there in the mid-19th century. Bernard Nightingale (Craig) has come seeking to confirm his theory that the poet Lord Byron was a guest of the estate, killed a man there and fled the country. In alternating scenes, we also follow the lives of those 19th-century inhabitants of Sidney Park. Septimus Hodge (Nick Merritt) is the sly and witty tutor of 13-year-old Thomasina Coverly (Shannon Emerick), a girl both innocently curious about "carnal embrace" and unusually wise in the ways of algebra.
The cast is rounded out by an easily flattered poet named Ezra Chater (David Melville), his friend and protector Captain Brice (Darren Matthias), the opinionated grand dame of the house Lady Croom (Dee Pelletier) and the hare-brained landscaper Mr. Noakes (Tony Cedeño).
In the course of the play, the characters discuss literary history, allude to the historic traditions of English gardens and fathom the intricacies of mathematics and physics. And they do it all while pairing up, flirting and talking about sex. The tutor carries on affairs with Lady Croom and a visiting guest, while in the modern scenes, scientist Valentine Coverly (Terry Weber), a descendant of the home's original residents, tries to charm Hannah Jarvis with his surprisingly poetic talk of studying grouse. Even the bawdy and at-times juvenile Nightingale is chased by the young Chloe Coverly (Angela Church) and at one point suggests a liaison between the two historians. Sex, in this play as in nature, is always going on in the background, and Chloe has the epiphany that nature could be put in a formula if it weren't for the interference of attraction.
The performances in Arcadia are all top-rate. Gould plays Hannah Jarvis as smart and successful, passionate about her research and still vulnerable in her doubt. She makes it clear why the two men (and even the mute young man who lives in the house) are attracted to her. She's strong not bitchy, cool not frigid. Why she never takes either man up on his offer isn't quite clear, but it leaves the romance in the dialogue instead of playing it out in vivid detail on stage. Stoppard's words speak enough on behalf of love, and any exhibition would be unseemly for the Victorian characters as well as the '90s academics.
Merritt and Weber are enchanting in their roles as young men driven and obsessed by science. Stoppard creates male characters who are romantic without being sappy, and both actors invest their roles with loads of honest charm. UT graduate Angela Church plays Chloe with sassiness. New York-based actress Shannon Emerick is outstanding as Thomasina. Under the guidance of her beloved Septimus, she discovers theories of algebra that won't be rediscovered until the computer age. But the realities of the time mean she will be married off on her 17th birthday. Her last request of her tutor is to learn how to waltz. Emerick handles the simplicity of youth and budding genius with a sad and tender delicacy that makes the final scene particularly moving.
The accents, well-performed by the presumably non-British cast, are only distracting because they're harder to understand from a distance than American English. And while the topics of discussion aren't unfathomable, they are crammed together in quick lines and witty repartee. But this isn't a sitcom pilot or a "Fractals for Dummies" guidebook. Stoppard's highly literate and poetic play has big ideas wrapped in a charming cover, and that cover has many layers.
You don't have to understand algebra or the history of English gardens to follow Arcadia, although the play's program does an impressive job of introducing play-goers to a number of the topics addressed in the performance. Even without the program, being exposed to the unfamiliar science and history is like watching a show on public television that's a bit over your head but fascinating. The confusion is enjoyable when you know you won't be tested on it later. One viewing can only scratch the surface. Maybe the people who left during intermission felt they couldn't keep up; better to let the play wash over you. The stunning set design by Craig Siebles and breath-taking lights by Robert Perry will amaze your senses, while the ideas presented by this cast of vibrant characters will stretch your mind. The effect created in the final product, and the final scene in particular, is dizzying. It is, in fact, a lot like being in love.
September 14, 2000 * Vol. 10, No. 37
© 2000 Metro Pulse
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