Tom Stoppard's ArcadiaThe mysteries and complexities of nature intrigue two generations of characters in Arcadia, playing through November 16th at the University of Iowa. Arcadia (1993), by British playwright Tom Stoppard, follows a theme found in his other works, such as Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead (1967), Travesties (1974) and Hapgood (1988). The theme is the nature of reality.Susan Sharp, "Tom Stoppard Done Well"
Arcadia was first performed in London's Royal National Theatre in 1993 where it won many awards and received universal critical acclaim. According to the New York Times review of the Broadway premiere in 1995, Arcadia is "Tom Stoppard's richest, most ravishing comedy: a play of wit, intellect, brio and emotion. It's like a dream of levitation: you're instantaneously
aloft, soaring, banking, doing loop-the-loops and then, when you think you're about to plummet to earth, swooping to a gentle touchdown of not easily described sweetness and sorrow."
Conceive, if you can, a
historical who-dunnit where sex is blended with mathematics, the struggle between the rational
and the romantic eras is reenacted, and where Lord Byron, landscape architecture, and the second
law of thermodynamics are central themes.
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