Arcadia *****

It’s the nineteenth century and Byron’s kicking off a scandal in our midst - oh no wait, it’s the twenty first and this is all ‘trivial’ banter between rivalling scholars. Well, Stoppard has flawlessly mastered crossing timelines without a Doctor Who style paradox causing the world to end (or at the very least, deserve a bad review). In the present day, scholars Hannah and Bernard are staying at the Coverly’s country house searching for evidence to support Bernard’s theory: Did Byron flee the country because he killed poet Ezra Chater? Meanwhile, we’re seeing the truth for ourselves, but something much more interesting is afoot in Thomasina Coverly’s ‘good, old, English algebra’ proof being ironically far ahead of it’s time.
So science and literature, classicism and romanticism, entropy and disorder, all entwined in the complications of human nature and knowledge are brought to loggerheads to concoct what is arguably Stoppard’s cleverest play yet, and still finds room for the unscrupulous wit we know and love. When we go to the theatre and see what we would call a good play, we’re often moved - it’s unbeknown to me to ever equally feel that you’re being educated as well, and enjoy it! (If only our teachers had weaved narrative into lessons, we might have listened more…) Septimus Hodge isn’t so much Thomasina Coverly’s tutor and charmer as much as the audience’s; the same could be said of modern mathematician Valentine (by name and reserved for Hannah - and perhaps pet tortoise Lighting - by nature). The simple genius of the play is how Leveaux highlights the importance of the academia in the narrative like as sort of an erotic fuel to those academic relationships, and engages us in every possible way.
The ensemble is as faultless as the script delivering some truly memorable performances. Youngsters Jessie Cave as the child genius, and especially Hugh Mitchell hold their own next to an established cast that includes Neil Pearson and Samantha Bond as scholars, Hannah and Bernard. But it’s the rising stars that leave the impression, Stoppard’s son Ed as the frustrated Valentine Coverly (‘Brideshead regurgitated’) and Dan Stevens as sarky Septimus, who has a head for numbers as much as womanising - but underneath it all, whose heart rending revelation hits home with the audience most of all, and whose presence at Coverly is like a jigsaw of a map that must be pieced together for Bernard and Hannah to satisfy their theories (not to mention, he cuts a dashing figure).
Paul Anderson’s lighting is a subtle crowning glory on top of every element that Leveaux has managed to direct to perfection, which include a clean set by Betchler and Simon Baker’s simple score. Arcadia is the must see of the year, and the must read of the century. ‘Et in Arcadia ego.’ Even in Arcadia, there is death - think on it.
Veronica Grubb