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Arcadia
by Tom Stoppard
directed by Sean Graney
September 8 - October 14, 2001
The Hypocrites at The Viaduct,
3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago, IL.
Thu-Sat 8pm, Sun 7pm
Tickets available by calling 312-409-5578, or see http://www.the-hypocrites.com.
If you could stop every atom in its position and direction, and if your mind could comprehend all the actions thus suspended, then if you were really, really good at algebra you could write the formula for all the future; and although nobody can be so clever as to do it, the formula must exist just as one could.
Thomasina Coverly in Arcadia
Chloe: But it doesn't work, does it?
Valentine: No. It turns out the maths is different.
Chloe: No, it's all because of sex.
Chloe and Valentine Coverly in Arcadia
If you could stop every atom in its position and direction, you would have a snapshot of The Hypocrites' production of Arcadia -- a momentary freeze of the characters and their satire bouncing about the Coverlys' garden-front room like excited protons and neutrons. Fans of the clever and the intellectual twist will enjoy this playful, biting production which pits Reason against Romanticism, combining higher mathematics, formal gardening, a house-visit from Lord Byron, and sex (among other things) with witty asides and rapid-fire mishaps. Running from September 8 - October 14, Arcadia, at the Viaduct, delights with its lightning repartee and inspires thought with its take on How Things Work. That the Viaduct, an informal, homegrown space, houses such a professional production makes it all the more a welcome surprise.
Located in the garden front room of the Coverly country house in Derbyshire, England, the scenes shuttle between the early 1800's and the present day. Arcadia opens with an amusingly construed (and misconstrued) Latin lesson between tutor Septimus Hodge (John Byrnes) and pupil Thomasina Coverly (Mechelle Moe), which turns into a comedic mixup of cuckoldry and poetry (or lack thereof). The Hypocrites play Tom Stoppard's 1993 script with an approach reminiscent of 'Fawlty Towers' or 'Black Adder' -- dry British wit with plenty of body language putting a clear comedic spin on the verbal exchanges and double meanings. Arcadia then takes that BBC wit to graduate school (iterated algorithms!) and to the realm of academia and its detective work.
Mystery and satire drive the plot. In 1809/1812, young Thomasina and tutor Hodge discuss algebra and carnal embrace, Lady Croom (Mary Hampson Patterson), a Coverly, wrestles with gardener Noakes' (Gregory Hardigan) idea of 'romantic' ruin in landscapery, and unfortunate wordsmith Ezra Chater (Will Schultz) wobbles between being cuckold and poet. In the present day -- aided by the contemporary Coverly descendants Valentine, Chloe, and Gus -- academic Bernard Nightingale (Don Bender) all but foams at the mouth to get at the Coverly family papers, already the province of cool and savvy author Hannah Jarvis (Donna McGough). Nightingale and Jarvis battle for one-upmanship in digging up new, publishable material related to the events involving Chater, Hodge and company 200 years ago. Was Lord Byron actually a houseguest? Did he duel with and kill Ezra Chater? Who was the unnamed Hermit of the Hermitage of the ancestral Coverly garden, and what -- or why -- did he scribble on a hut-full of paper? Part of the humor lies in the contrast between the present day's interpretation, and idolization, of what is everyday for those in the 1800's.
In both eras, Reason sneers at Romance and vice versa. Whether it's poetry vs. mathematics, unpredictability vs. predictability, Love vs. Knowledge, the devotees of each are positive the other side is the degenerate one. Algebra also features in the play -- x + y = z -- and the x + y of the 1800's becomes the z of the present day when the barrier between the time periods dissolves, and both past and present are played, oblivious to one another, on the same stage at the same time. The play makes bitingly funny observations about academia, and has a few sardonic things to say about sex and attraction. It closes on a somewhat more sere -- or simply serene -- note, with an ending that satisfies the mysteries yet still leaves us speculating, emphasizing the theme of predictability/unpredictability, and that perhaps, there will always be some things we can guess at, but never know.
The meanings and double meanings rely heavily on good 'body English' and precise timing to bring them across, and the Hypocrites deliver on both accounts. Both as an ensemble, and as individuals, the actors under direction of Sean Graney successfully bring Stoppard's script to satiric life in a wealth of facial expressions, pauses, reactions and double-takes. The performances are full of energy and life. Donna McGough's Hannah Jarvis is wordly while remaining human, and plays well against both Don Bender as Byron-mad academic Bernard Nightingale (magnificently manic), and young mathematician Valentine Coverly (Steven Wilson), who starts as adorably nerdy and comes to show an unexpected inner strength. John Byrnes's Septimus Hodge is humorous, magnetic, and in his element whether slinging satire or showing some of the more touching emotion in the play. Mechelle Moe successfully brings out the cleverness, idealism, and troubled adolescent brilliance of young Thomasina Coverly. Manny Tamayo, Will Schultz, Gregory Hardigan, Mary Hampson Patterson, Nick Digilio, Jennifer Grace and Geoff Button round out the talented cast.
One of the pleasures of this production is its ability to bring 'highbrow' concepts to a manageable, even appealing, level. As an example, Valentine Coverly speaks feelingly to Hannah Jarvis of physics along with mathematics and its use in prediction:
People were talking about the end of physics. Relativity and quantum looked as if they were going to clean out the whole problem between them. A theory of everything. But they only explained the very big and the very small. ...The ordinary-sized stuff which is our lives...these things are as full of mystery, as mysterious to us as the heavens were to the Greeks. ...It's the best possible time to be alive, when almost everything you thought you knew is wrong.
Valentine's topic is complex, but actor Steven Wilson's earnestness brings the realization that what many would consider painfully dry has a poetry of its own.
The staging for Arcadia is minimal, and as the interest is mainly in the language and the characters, the simple set suggesting the country-house room, and a few props which appear and reappear throughout the show, work to advantage -- testament to the fact that a splendid night of theatre can be delivered without all the technical bells and whistles of 'spectacle.' The lighting and sound are done well in the Viaduct's rather large, industrial-style space, and contribute unobtrusively to the blend. The costumes provide apt visual clues to the nature of the characters -- Valentine's groovy, 'science-y' silver shirt and Bernard's so-hip red specs, for example. The house at the Viaduct is informal and intimate, a few rows of school-style seats on risers angled at the edges of the thrust stage; and for Arcadia, such intimacy shows up nuances of look and gesture that might be lost from a greater distance. Flexible attire is advised -- on opening night the theatre was tropically hot, though this may not always be so. (It was more than made up for by the friendliness of the Viaduct staff and the excellence of the show.)
Arcadia has a 2-1/2 hour runtime, including one intermission; the minimal staging lends itself to quick changes, and the pacing is swift and keeps the eye and mind engaged. It is a play of rapid-fire verbal exchange, for the most part delivered clearly in British accents understandable to an American ear, but here and there rattled off a little too speedily to be intelligible; as the play is wholly hung on its language-play and the clues it contains, a bit of a slowdown -- even at the expense of a slightly longer runtime -- would keep the ear from occasionally being left behind.
You need not understand algebra, or gardening, (or carnal embrace, for that matter) to thoroughly enjoy Arcadia. Whether you're looking for something to ponder or just an evening of clever diversion, Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, presented by The Hypocrites at The Viaduct, Sep. 8 - Oct. 14, should satisfy. Its script, though complex, is enjoyably so; the wit will tickle your fancy; and the performance is energetic and well-done. Tickets are $12 Thu & Sun, $15 Fri & Sat; Students with ID $10; cash only.
--Katherine Rook Lieber
Katherine Rook Lieber has edited ArtScope.net's Visual and Performing Arts reviews since 1998. Ms. Lieber is Editor and Associate Producer for ArtScope.net.
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