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Published: April 2004
First staged in 1993, Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia is a challenging intellectual comedy, rich with wordplay, its storyline planted in two different centuries and sensibilities. In 1809, a rakish male tutor and his mathematically gifted female pupil dabble in the mysteries of nature, geometry, and poetry. They share the room and the stage with a pair of 20th-century academics—a man and a woman—attempting to learn what once transpired there. One is a scholar of Byron, convinced the poet fought a duel at this very estate; the other is piecing together the history of the gardens and the identity of a hermit who may have inhabited them.
Led by director and theater department chair Stuart Hecht, actors, set designers, costumers, and voice and movement coaches wrestle with the small and large decisions that will turn a classic script into a fresh discovery.
