I had the opportunity to attend the opening of
Tom Stoppard's Arcadia presented by Austin Shakespeare at the Long Center.
Well, Austin
Shakespeare has done it again! I'm
hooked. I've only attended two of their
performances (Hamlet being the other) but I will go to every new production,
barring life threatening illness.
I've been a Stoppard fan since I saw Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are Dead in high school and proceeded to read many of his radio
plays, but Arcadia was not amongst the lot.
I plan to read it now - many of the jokes were witty and fast
and a few flew over my head as I was still contemplating the previous line(s)
of dialogue.
The setting for the play is an English manor in 1809 and
in the present. The situations of the characters are slightly mirrored in the different time periods as the modern folk try to uncover some of the mystery of the 1809 characters' lives through snippets in diaries and journals, as well as sketches left behind. A lot of the content of the play revolves around "new" theories of mathematics and intellectual thought, both in the past and in the present. I admit I wish I knew more about Lord Byron going into the play and more about mathematics in general, but I consider leaving a play wanting to read more and research more a success.
If you have the chance, this is a production well worth seeing & this is the last week to do so. Visit their site for more information regarding tickets & times.
Side Note: I was curious why a Shakespearean group was tackling a
Stoppard play, so I looked them up.
Austin Shakespeare was founded in 1984 and focuses its productions on
Shakespeare, but not exclusively. If you
have more questions or are curious about their season, check out Austin
Shakespeare at www.austinshakespeare.org.