Et in Arcadia ego

In Tom Stoppard's wonderful, magical Arcadia, one of the characters - Lady Croom, the eighteenth century chatelaine of rather grand house and (even more importantly) a wonderful garden - is succeeded by another Lady Croom in the twentieth century, who is passionate about her garden and its history.  This is the basis for a dazzling drama of understanding and misunderstanding - of sexual intrigue and mathematics on the borders of the philosophical.  It's very funny, very clever, and was beautifully staged to full houses during its long original run and in the recent revival.

I caught the last week of the latest revival of this masterpiece in London -there's a wonderful review by Michael Billington here, so I'm not going into much detail.  I enjoyed it greatly, although I thought the relationship between Thomasina and her tutor was too blatantly sexual; it was more subtle, more regretful, in the original production, which I saw twice.  Out of interest, I looked up the cast of that first production - what a collection! Harriet Walter and Felicity Kendal on stage together!

Thomasina Coverly...............Emma Fielding
Septimus Hodge...................Rufus Sewell
Jellaby..................................Alan Mitchell
Ezra Chater..........................Derek Hutchinson
Richard Noakes....................Sidney Livingston
Lady Croom..........................Harriet Walter
Captain Edward Brice R.N....Graham Sinclair
Hannah Jarvis.......................Felicity Kendal
Chole Coverly.......................Harriet Harrison
Bernard Nightingale..............Bill Nighy
Gus Coverly......................... Timothy Matthews
Valentine Coverly..................Samuel West
Augustus Coverly..................Timothy Matthews

 

Comments

[glo]

When I saw this book appear on your left column, I decided that I would read it too. I spent a whole Saturday afternoon visiting libraries and bookstores (of all kinds), but could'nt fint it. The bookstores attendants didn't even know how to spell the author's name! I think I'll be giving up for this time. Stoppard is not very famous in my country, unlike Oscar Wilde or Harold Pinter.
Many years ago, I attended the play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead"; people started leaving ten minutes after the beginning, I resisted twenty minutes myself, and then I left too. I can't tell if the play is not fine, if the actors were bad or what wasn't working though.