It is often said that Tom Stoppard is a playwright of ideas, but under the apt direction of Charles Newell at Court Theatre, Stoppards "Arcadia" transcends far beyond the purely cerebral. It is a dazzling, at times hilarious, production and its intellectual weight is not diminished by this production's physicality. Instead, the result is a smoothIt is often said that Tom Stoppard is a playwright of ideas, but under the apt direction of Charles Newell at Court Theatre, Stoppard's "Arcadia" transcends far beyond the purely cerebral. It is a dazzling, at times hilarious, production and its intellectual weight is not diminished by this production's physicality. Instead, the result is a smooth, sumptuous marriage of thought and body, page and stage. It is an apt and joyful note on which to end Court's season.
A time-traveling detective story of sorts, "Arcadia" jumps between 1809 and 1989, when two loosely tied groups of academics descend upon the same English country house. In the 20th-century, a group of scholars (ranging from catty to wildly self-doubting) try to unravel the mysteries of who visited the estate nearly 200 years before, each in pursuit of a profound statement. In the 19th-century, a series of trysts, scandals and slights unfurls, with only the audience sensing the full repercussions of these seemingly incidental acts. The two time periods bounce back and forth, eventually woven together in a staggering pattern of passions and ideas.
It's not just the professors and poets who are discussing Newtonian physics, chaos theory, calculus or landscape gardening. Even 13-year-old Thomasina Coverly (played with a lovely balance of lust and doe-eyed wonder by Bethany Caputo) theorizes that if all the atoms in the world could temporarily stand in place, she could use math to calculate everyone's actions until the end of time.
Caputo doesn't deliver the only noteworthy performance, though. Grant Goodman, as Thomasina's tutor Septimus Hodge, is a figure of increasing fascination, and Mary Beth Fisher, as Hannah Jarvis, delivers a restrained but full-body performance.
The set, in all its simplicity, is the picture of perfection. Designed by Matthew York (scenic) and Marc Stubblefield (lighting), the stage is dominated largely by a long table and bookshelf. It is in the more subtle details, though, that one sees allusion to Stoppard's allusions—the elliptical, overlapping orbits of the overhead ceiling and the endless criss-cross of the hardwood floors. It's a small detail, but for a theater that includes diagrams of Galillean physics in its play notes, one can be certain that even the smallest details are intentional.
"Arcadia" runs through June 3 at Court Theatre. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 3 & 8 p.m. Saturday; 2:30 & 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $8-$45.
