THEATER REVIEW- Arcadia

In line to at the Bedlam Theatre to see “Arcadia,” admiring with a weary air the chatter of literally European intellectuals, I admitted to no one that I had not read Tom Stoppard’s play. In fact, I had not even heard of this British playwright. I slid into my hat, and tried to think of how to best look inconspicuous. “This one!” I was already planning on answering, if anyone had the frustrating friendliness to ask me about my favorite Stoppard production.

It turns out however, that I had long been a fan of Tom Stoppard. My reputation of being at least minimally pop-cultured was redeemed by Wikipedia, my faithful friend. Stoppard, as the more attentive types will have already recognized, has written over 24 plays, among them “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead” and the screenplay for “Shakespeare in Love.”

I loved the show. It was Victorian, and modern, and slid between the two time periods with the satisfaction of fitting together a particularly difficult puzzle. The dialogue was exquisitely heady, erudite, over-the-top and instead of damning the playwright, left me wanting to comb the script with a dictionary (in public, so as to further nurture my vanity---though perhaps a dictionary would give the wrong impression, albeit the correct one). It reminded me of Pride and Prejudice, Proof, If These Walls Could Talk and the previews for What the Bleep Do We Know? I left the theater with admiration and thrill in my heart, I wish I had not seen it alone, so that I could turn to them and just grin. There was kissing, and romance, and clever condensations of the cosmos into pithy threads weaving the characters into a neat continuous “it’s all been done for the first time before” equation.

I wish I had not given out four star reviews, so that I could give it out once more. This production is definitely a worthy main stage production, an easy favorite, if not necessarily typical fringe.


* For the sake of accuracy and truth in reporting: Stoppard co-wrote "Shakespeare in Love" with Marc Norman.

** Also in literature, Arcadia (a Greek City) is often referenced as the ideal countryside, where the simplicity of the pastoral life reigns supreme. In this play, it references the Victorian manor before the hired gardener seeks to modernize the place by creating rustic ruins in the place of the classic order; of course this occurs in parallel to the death of the enlightenment and probably insinuates a lot of other things that should be discussed over cappuccinos.