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Finding a relative truth
Arcadia
The New Alexandra Theatre
**** AN evening of past living cheek by jowl
with present, science versus art, probability and chance, chaos theory,
Newton’s second law of thermodynamics, the interpretation and
assumptions made in writing history, not to mention the discovery of the
dahlia, all sounds more like a dull and dusty lecture, enlightened only
by a discussion on carnal embrace, than a play. But play it is, a revival of Tom Stoppard’s 1993 work, regarded by many as his finest cration, and as plays go this is not for the faint hearted. It is an intellectual exercise with complex themes and complex discussions wrapped up in some witty lines and clever dialogue - let concentration drift for a moment if you dare! The single, rather gorgeous set from Jonathan Fensom, is a large table in a salon of Sidley Park, a Derbyshire country house where past and present drift by each other as characters from the 19th century period covered, 1809-1812, act out their lives on the same set as the present day characters, the present being 1993 when it was written, with props of past and present remaining in both ages, including the venerable old tortoise, Lightning. Scenes change merely by actors and ages making their entrances and exits with almost two centuries between them until, towards the end, 19th and 20th century are as one, with neither aware of the other. We open in the past with Septimus Hodge, tutor to Thomasina Coverly, played with a sort of worldly innocence by Dakota Blue Richards, who is a 13 year-old maths genius. Septimus, played with a sort of handsome, rakishness by Wilf Scolding, is well schooed in the classics and sciences as one would expect of a university educated young man of the day. He enjoys his role as teacher and, as an an extra curricular pastime, is happy to offer his tutelage n the art of carnal embrace to house guests and even the lady of the house, Lady Croom, played by with a sort of shocked fascination at the offer, by Kirsty Besterman. As time goes on Thomasina is falling in love with
the academic and he with Two sides of an argument: Flora Montgomery (Hannah Jarvis) and Robert Cavanah (Bernard Nightingale) The plot is simple, Bernard Nightingale, a don at
Sussex university, is out to make a name for himself by explaining Lord
Byron fled to the Continent in 1810 after killing a man at Sidley. And with a few facts, Nightingale makes
assumptions based on what little information he has, reaching a
conclusion that is ultimately proved wrong. Chaos theory in a nutshell,
what is known and then what is assumed to fill the gaps over a period of
time. Robert Cavanah is a rather pompous,
self-opinionated, fame seeking Nightingale, the worse sort of academic,
out to make a name for himself, going with gut feeling – to his
advantage of course – whenever fact is unknown. He is trying to use the work of Hannah Jarvis, a
lovely performance by Flora Montgomery, who is researching the gardens
and hermitage of Sidley, and is the author of book about of Lady
Caroline Lamb, Byron’s mistress. Although Bernard talks of
collaboration, he seems to be a taker rather than a sharer and cannot
countenance anything which even hints at questioning his views,
particularly science.. Hannah, at best, tolerates him and criticises his
cavalier attitude to the accuracy of his findings. Around them we have Valentine Coverly, played
with a scientific detachment, and emotional involvement, by
Ed MacArthur, son of Sidley’s present day family, a
mathematician, the modern face of science, who discovers the genius of
Thomasina and her theories which are way ahead of her time. And then
there is his teenage sister Chloe, played by Ria Zmitrowicz, who like
Thomasina before her, falls for the academic in the house, the somewhat
less handsome and more self centered, randy rather than rakish Bernard.
A bit of an imagination stretch that one. Then there are lesser characters, such as the
minor poet Ezra Chater, played by Nakay Kpaka, who will put up with most
things, including being a cuckold, as long as you praise his third rate
poetry, Jellaby (David Mara) the long suffering Butler and Captain
Brice, Lady Croom’s brother, sent from the house in disgrace after a
night of bedroom Olympics involving guests he had invited – that old
carnal embrace again. Then there is Richard Noaks, played by Larrington
Walker, who was last seen in Birmingham as the cantankerous Rudy in
Rudy’s Rare Records. Noaks is a garden designer, whose ideas are
mistrusted by Lady Croom, and the man who introduces the hermitage,
another plank in the structure of the play. The only link between the two eras i As the play develops we see not only complex mathematical theories discussed and explained but how minor events in the past can have quite different interpretations in the present if the facts are not known, or, perhaps worse, only part of an event is recorded. Thus we have a challenge to a duel becoming a death and a quickly sketched illustration of a hermit, any old hermit, is elevated to the only known likeness of Sidley’s eremite, and on and on. One tiny assumption to fill in one tiny gap can
be miles from the truth some 180 years on. Make too many assumptions
about too many tiny gaps, too long ago and truth is nowhere in sight.
Chaos theory in a nutshell.
There is a lovely touch as the end with Gus waltzing with Hannah in the now and Septimus and Thomasina walzing in the then, all to modern music, which, if nothing else, shows the past will always have a bearing on the present. The play is full of ideas indeed it bombards you
with them all night with not even the respite of a scene change as the
pace, dictated by director Blanche McIntyre, is relentless. There are some very funny lines and witty asides
and although it is never gripping, there is enough interest to carry you
along through almost two and a half hours, including interval. You see a scene in the 19th century and then how in the present day fanciful flesh is added to an incomplete skeleton of facts. Whether the tabloids would get so carried away with an academic claiming Byron had to flee the country after a duel is debatable, even in 1993, but we do see how history has to be sensationalised in our celebrity obsessed culture, the Plantagenets and the Tudors currently receiving the speculation and star treatment. We also see how eager people are to make facts
fit their theory rather than allowing facts to speak, or indeed remain
silent, for themselves. English Touring Theatre have built up a well
deserved reputation for exceptional productions and this is will only
add to that. Incidentally, in an ETT poll Arcadia came fourth
in a poll to find the nation’s favourite plays, which can’t be a bad
recommendation - Stoppards play even has it own misinformation,
the science may be right but it is a fictional story, and remember the
dahlia? It wasn’t discovered in the 19th century at all and
the first specimen in Britain did not go to Sidley or indeed any country
house, but was grown from seed in 1798 from originally Mexican plants
which were sent to Kew from Spain. It is not the easiest of plays to watch,
demanding constant attention, but it is a rewarding and entertaining
expereince. On opening night a few words were lost, which is a pity as
this is a play which relies entirely on words, but first nights in a new
theatre are a perennial problem for sound engineers and no doubt that
will be sorted for the rest of the run. To 28-03-15. By Roger Clarke
23-03-15
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her but he turns down her sexual advances on the eve of her 17th
birthday, a noble gesture by one usually so generous in the
physical sciences, and a decision which was to not only have fateful
consequences but rob the world of a mathematical genius, whose time was
only just starting to dawn.
s
Augustus and Gus, both played by Charlie Manton. In 1809 he is a
somewhat precocious, trouble making younger brother of Thomasina. In the
present day he is a strange child who has been mute since the age of
five.