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Arcadia

Full-Length Play, Comedy  /  4w, 8m

Tom Stoppard

This brilliant play moves smoothly between 1809 and the present as it explores the nature of truth and time, the difference between classical and romantic temperaments, and the disruptive influence of sex on our life orbits- the attraction Newton left out.

Arcadia

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    4w, 8m
Accolades
Accolades
  • Winner! 1995 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play
    Winner! 1994 Olivier Award for Best Play
    Nominee: 2010 Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Play

Details

Summary
Arcadia moves back and forth between 1809 and the present at the elegant estate owned by the Coverly family. The 1809 scenes reveal a household in transition. As the Arcadian landscape is being transformed into picturesque Gothic gardens, complete with a hermitage, thirteen year-old Lady Thomasina and her tutor delve into intellectual and romantic issues. Present day scenes depict the Coverly descendants and two competing scholars who are researching a possible scandal at the estate in 1809 involving Lord Byron. This brilliant play moves smoothly between the centuries and explores the nature of truth and time, the difference between classical and romantic temperaments, and the disruptive influence of sex on our life orbits- the attraction Newton left out.
History
Arcadia first opened at the Royal National Theatre in London on 13 April 1993.
Keywords
THOMASINA COVERLY - aged thirteen, later sixteen
SEPTIMUS HODGE - her tutor, aged twenty-two, later twenty-five
JELLABY - a butler, middle-aged
EZRA CHATER - a poet, aged thirty-one
RICHARD NOAKES - a landscape architect, middle-aged
LADY CROOM - middle thirties
CAPT. BRICE, RN - middle thirties
HANNAH JARVIS - an author, late thirties
CHLOË COVERLY - aged eighteen
BERNARD NIGHTINGALE - a don, late thirties
VALENTINE COVERLY - aged twenty-five to thirty
GUS COVERLY - aged fifteen
AUGUSTUS COVERLY - aged fifteen
  • Time Period Present Day, Victorian (British and American)
  • Setting Sidley Park, an English country house.
  • Features Period Costumes

Media

"Pure entertainment for the heart, mind, soul...The best Broadway play for many, many a season. It is a work shot through with fun, passion and, yes, genius." - The New York Post

"Stoppard's richest, most ravishing comedy to date, a play of wit, intellect, language, brio and...emotion. It's like a dream of levitation: you're instantaneously aloft, soaring, banking, doing loop the loops... The playwright is a daredevil pilot who's steady at the controls." - The New York Times

"Full of complex ideas and pleasures one expects from this master of dramatic composition." - Time Out New York

"A dazzling exposition of epigrammatic wit." - Daily Express

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $130 per performance

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Authors

Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard’s most recent play, The Hard Problem, opened at the National Theatre in 2015. He wrote his first play, Enter a Free Man, whilst working as a journalist in Bristol. His plays include Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, The Real Inspector Hound, After Magritte, ...

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