Arcadia

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In Scene 2, which zooms forward to the present day, Bernard, a scholar of the Romantic era, arrives at Sidley Park. He meets Hannah, another academic who is already there, studying the garden and the Sidley hermit, who she thinks symbolizes Romanticism. Bernard professes to be interested in Chater’s poetry, having found a copy of “The Couch of Eros,” but Hannah uncovers him for who he really is—a Byron obsessive who’d written a mean review of her previous book. Despite Hannah’s dislike of him, Bernard decides to stay around Sidley Park to do research. He thinks he may have found evidence that Byron was a houseguest at the same time as Chater, and that they dueled, with Byron killing Chater. We also meet the modern-day Coverly siblings, the current residents of Sidney Park, Valentine, Chloë, and Gus. The confusion of who did what (and, in some cases, to whom) work to great comedic and dramatic effect. Kelly, Katherine E., ed. (2001). The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-64592-8.

Thomasina and Chloe are another pair. The "action of bodies in heat" argued for by Thomasina manifests in Chloe's complete concern with the heat and seduction of Bernard. Like Thomasina's discovery of the second law of thermodynamics, Chloe adds her own idea to the mix: sex is the ultimate argument against determinism. Chloe believes that the randomness of sexual attraction keeps the world from a deterministic end. Like her counterpart, Thomasina, Chloe asks if she is the "first person to think of this." Valentine, like Septimus, replies to her enthusiasm with a probable "yes." The ultimate proof to the random nature of bodies in heat exists in Thomasina's generation with the character of Mrs. Chater—a woman obsessed with making heat with anyone at anytime. Chloe seems to know the proof of her idea by her own actions and attraction to the foppish scholar, Bernard. The second law of thermodynamics, while possibly not fully understood by either girl, is simultaneously an answer and a dilemma to the question of self for the girls;one cannot predict the random actions of people or themselves. The death of Thomasina by fire is certainly symbolic of this truth. Adding to the complexity an unseen Byron, who went to university with Septimus, visits Sidley Park.In one period -- 1809 to 1812 -- it is the residence of Lord and Lady Croom, young Lady Thomasina Coverly (a young teen) and her tutor, Septimus Hodge, among others.

I've never resolved whether Stoppard is too clever for me or just too clever for himself, but it's nothing but joy to let his propositions roll around the theatre. Every line has a charge and a new meaning, every scene a question. (...) I still can't decide what the play wants to be about: but an evening that gives such pure uncomplicated pleasure on so many complicated matters is a rarity and a cause for general rejoicing." - Michael Coveney, The Independent Thomasina's insights into thermodynamics and heat transfer, and the idea that the universe is cooling, echo the poem " Darkness" by her "real life" contemporary, Lord Byron. [9] Written in 1816 – the " Year Without a Summer", caused by atmospheric ash from the volcano Mount Tambora erupting in the Dutch East Indies – "Darkness" depicts a world grown dark and cold because the sun has been extinguished. Nonetheless, Hannah, like Thomasina, Septimus, and Gus all waltz at the conclusion of the play. Hannah cannot refuse emotion or the bashful Gus by the end of the play and is drawn into an uncomfortable and uneasy dance. The conflict between emotion and intellect is resolved because Hannah suddenly understands that the two are inseparable. Hannah is unlike Thomasina, who unconsciously understands this, driven forcefully by the mystery of both. The Mystery of Sex In Arcadia, Stoppard presents his audience with several highly complex but fundamental mathematical and scientific concepts. He also uses these theories and ideas to illuminate relationships among his characters, adding to their poignancy. Fractal also meant “self-similar.” “Self-similarity is symmetry across scale. It implies recursion, pattern inside of pattern.” Fractal geometry produces detail at finer and finer scales, as in the image of a person reflected in mirror after mirror after mirror, infinitely receding. Mandelbrot liked to quote Jonathan Swift:A) splendid intellectual farrago (.....) As usual in a Stoppard play, the true star is Stoppard, and he has never burned brighter or more kindly." - William A. Henry III, Time Hari, Johann (22 May 2009). "Is Tom Stoppard's Arcadia the greatest play of our age?". The Independent. London . Retrieved 1 December 2010. Standing above them all, making the case for the entire genre [of 'plays of ideas'], is perhaps the greatest play of its time: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard.

An arcadia is a utopian society centered around agricultural prosperity and harmony with Nature. The image of a hermit, a person living inside a wealthy landowner's garden as a permanent resident for the entertainment of the wealthy, disrupts Mrs. Croom's picturesque garden. The present. Hannah rediscovers Thomasina's primer containing her ideas on iteration and chaos theory; this recalls Septimus' assertion that what was lost is eventually rediscovered. Valentine reacts with interest to the notes, as his own research centres on similar concepts.Augustus Coverly: Thomasina's trouble-making younger brother. He appears in only a few brief scenes. (Gus and Augustus are played by the same actor.) Chloe Coverly: The 18-year-old daughter of the modern Lady Croom. While her mind is not as rigorous as Thomasina's, Chloe likes to propose wild ideas. She argues that the Newtonian universe has been destabilized by sex and the problems it causes. She tries to set up Hannah with Bernard, but ends up sleeping with him herself. Lady Croom, enthusing about paintings of pretty landscapes, translates the phrase as "Here I am in Arcadia!" Thomasina drily comments, "Yes Mama, if you would have it so". Septimus notices; later, suspecting his pupil will appreciate the motto's true meaning, he offers the translation "Even in Arcadia, there am I". He is right – "Oh, phooey to Death!" she exclaims. [28] Although these brief exchanges are the only direct references in the play to its title, they presage the two main characters' fates: Thomasina's early death, and Septimus's voluntary exile from life. [25] Stoppard originally wanted to make this connection more explicit by using Et in Arcadia Ego for the title, but "box office sense prevailed". [25]

Jim Hunter writes that Arcadia is a relatively realistic play, compared to Stoppard's other works, though the realism is "much enhanced and teased about by the alternation of two eras". [10] The setting and characters are true-to-life, without being archetypal. It is comprehensible: the plot is both logical and probable, following events in a linear fashion. Arcadia's major deviation from realism, of course, is in having two plotlines that are linear and parallel. Thus we see Thomasina deriving her mathematical equations to describe the forms of nature; [11] we later see Val, with his computer, plotting them to produce the image of a leaf. [12] Language [ edit ] Much of the fun comes from the alternate scenes in the present, as these figures try to understand from the few clues left what exactly happened in the past. Cohen, J.M.; Cohen, M.J. (1960). The Penguin Dictionary of Quotations. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books. Arcadia offers us the terrifying prospect of our most intelligent and referential dramatist finally vanishing up his own brilliance: it is in the end a play about everything and nothing, in which knowledge is all and caring is nil." - Sheridan Morley, The Spectator Not that most of the other Arcadia figures don’t wax and wane compellingly through the two-act proceedings and across the centuries. Sidley Park’s Lady Croom (Lisa Birnbaum) is histrionic about the plans landscape architect Mr. Noakes (Jamie Smithson) has that would transform her formal gardens into seemingly untamed acreage. Poet Ezra Chater (Randolph Curtis Rand) strongly objects to tutor Hodge’s dalliance with his never seen wife.

Some ideas in the play recall Goethe's novella Elective Affinities: Stoppard's characters "Thomasina" and "Septimus" have parallels in Goethe's "Ottilie" and "Eduard", and the historical section of Stoppard's play is set in 1809, the year of Goethe's novella. [33] Among other parallels, the older work takes the theory of affinity between chemical elements as a metaphor for ineluctable, inevitable "human chemistry" in the same way as Stoppard makes use of the force of determinism acting on his characters. [34] [35] A feature of both works is the preoccupation with remodelling country house landscapes; Goethe's young character "Ottilie" (the counterpart to Thomasina) dies as an indirect result of this. [33] Productions [ edit ] Poster, by James McMullan, for the Lincoln Center 1995 production As the action proceeds, much of it at a stately home called Sidley Park, Stoppard handles subjects as catchall as Caroline Lamb and Lord Byron (who was believed to be a Sidley Park visitor), Euclid and Isaac Newton, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, chaos theory, iterated algorithms, and, of course, the forever vaunted English gardens. Additional issues too numerous to mention are dexterously maneuvered. (Note: Stoppard makes certain nothing he includes is difficult to follow. Okay, even if he doesn’t quite accomplish that, he succeeds at the whole eventually overpowering the sum of its abundant parts.) Tony Nominations Announced; Book of Mormon Earns 14 Nominations". Playbill. 3 May 2011. Archived from the original on 14 September 2011 . Retrieved 2 June 2011. The columnist Johann Hari confidently asserted the other day that Tom Stoppard's 1993 play Arcadia is " perhaps the greatest play of its time". A bold claim: suitably brash and impossible to measure. Even so, you can see what he means. Stoppard's wise and yearning play spans the Georgian sublime and the disillusioned days of the last Tory government, spinning ideas about the shape of the universe and the needs of the heart. I can't wait to see it again this week in David Leveaux's new production. The first scene opens on Sidley Park, 1809, as precocious Thomasina Coverly studies with her tutor, Septimus Hodge. Thirteen-year-old Thomasina is brilliant, and her understanding of science is ahead of her time. Thomasina asks Septimus what a "carnal embrace" is, stating she heard from the butler that Mrs. Chater, a guest at the house, was caught in a carnal embrace with another man. Septimus reluctantly indulges Thomasina's question. The two also discuss determinism and Newton's law of motion.