Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, MTC, Feb 1995

By Melbourne Theatre Company

At The Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne until 25 March, 1995

Reviewer: Kate Herbert for The Melbourne Times. Reviewed late Feb 1995

 

We make of history what suits our politics and philosophy, even an earthly paradise – Arcady. Tom Stoppard's play, Arcadia, is impeccably crafted, perfectly structured, intelligent, witty and challenging. I cannot fault script, Simon Phillips production nor any individual performance.

 

In inimitable Stoppard fashion, Arcadia unravels a superb biographical-historical plot not unrelated to A.S. Byatt's novel, Possession.

 

He interweaves an aristocratic family of the late 18th century Romantic period of literature, painting, gardens and classical mathematics with the 20th century's literary criticism, computer technology and chaos theory.  The result is a mind-bending intersection of worlds charged with sex and conflict.

 

Two modern literary academics from polarised schools of academia meet at Sidley Hall. Lewis Fiander plays conservative, priggish snob, Bernard Nightingale in pursuit of Lord Byron while Helen Morse is the cool feminist, Hannah Jarvis, hunting for the more obscure Hermit of Sidley Hall.

 

History always eludes us. It is unscientific, as are natural phenomena and human nature. We cannot quantify it. The unpredictability is the rule, unlike quantum physics and relativity.

 

Under the mathematical tutelage of Byron's friend, Septimus Hodge (stylish, wickedly rakish Peter O'Brien), an inspired 18th century teenager (zesty Sarah Walker) stumbles upon a pre-computer version of Chaos Theory. Meanwhile various sexual liaisons are being played out and the 20th century theorists struggle to piece the jigsaw together.

 

In this story, as says twitty aristocrat Chloe (hilarious Sally Cooper) sex is the variable, the interferon. All the 20th century theory falls apart without knowledge of the personal details to which we are privy in the Romantic era flashbacks.

 

The play captures the "decline from thinking to feeling" which was the social norm after the Age of Reason. The Romantics created their own chaos as have the Chaos Theorists today. We discover that "everything you thought you knew, was wrong" both in life and in the drama.

 

The play is moving, passionate, analytical and inspired. It forces an audience to think, judge and feel. I could give you no greater recommendation.

 

KATE HERBERT