Arcadia - Stagetext (Mold) February 24, 2007

Arcadia

Genre: Comedy
Playwright: Tom Stoppard

On 10th April 1809, when Byron was a guest at Sidley Park, a large country estate, momentous events take place in the house. Lady Croom and Mr Noakes, her landscape gardener, discuss re-modelling the classical garden in the new picturesque style. Thomasina works on mathematical solutions to explain the mysteries of nature. And her tutor, Septimus Hodge, is confronted by Mr Chater, the poet, about an affair with his wife.

Almost two hundred years later, in the same place, Hannah and Bernard, fractious and competing academics, search for clues in books, love letters and grouse shooting records to discover the truth about events of that fateful day and its aftermath.

In Arcadia, his dazzling comedy, Tom Stoppard examines the enigma of genius in an absorbing play which brims with suspense, intellectual vitality and sexual tension.

Arcadia, the winner of an Olivier Award for Best Play and a New York Drama
Critics Award, is directed by Terry Hands.