Arcadia

By Tom Stoppard

Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00: April 30 (includes Opening Night reception), May 1, 7, 8, 14, and 15, 1999.

Sunday Matinee at 2:30: May 16, 1999.

Single ticket prices: $12 (Saturdays), $10 (adults, Fridays and Sundays), $8 (senior citizens and students, Fridays and Sundays).

One of the most esteemed playwrights of this century, Tom Stoppard presents a maze of intellectual stimulation in a glowing comedy that spans two centuries. It is 1809 when we meet Thomasina Coverly, a precocious 13-year-old, and her clever tutor, Septimus Hodge, as they lay out the basis of a fable regarding Lord Byron’s romantic adventures, wrestle with Fermat’s Last Theorem, and discuss chaos theory! In a seamless transition to the present, two adversarial academics try to solve the historical puzzle left by Thomasina’s search for the answers to the mysteries of life. Stoppard’s verbal agility, wit, and insight into the foibles of human nature brilliantly take center stage. And exploring the Second Law of Thermodynamics — “actions of bodies in heat” — takes on whole new meaning!

Directed by Leslie A. Kobylinski; produced by Dino Salin.

Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc., New York.

The text of Arcadia is available for online purchase, in association with Amazon.com.

Different Stages has prepared an annotated list of links about Arcadia. At a page written by Michael Berry, you will find a plot synopsis, more links, and (yes) a reading list.