The late Sir Tom Stoppard – who passed away a few short months ago – has left an incredible legacy of works; his final play, 2020’s Leopoldstadt, picked up the Olivier Award for Best New Play (the Broadway transfer also won the Tony Award for Best Play). In amongst an extensive catalogue of plays, Arcadia is regarded by critics as his finest work, so we took the opportunity to check out The Old Vic’s revival over the weekend – especially after we’d been impressed with their 2024 revival of his play The Real Thing.
So what is Arcadia all about? Well, that’s quite hard to answer – it’s set across two different time periods, in one room, with events unfolding about 200 years apart; we cover a range of topics from gardening to mathematics, and from romance to our understanding of Lord Byron. More broadly though, this is a play which explores big ideas, interpretation, and life itself.
It’s utterly compelling: at one moment, during a transition between the more contemporary timeline and the past, we found ourselves completely engrossed and invested in these characters, eager to find out what would happen next. It’s a play which affords snapshots into the events of the past, intertwined with modern historians attempting to understand what happened in the house from the available evidence. Over the course of nearly three hours we started to piece parts of the puzzle together, although – as became increasingly evident – there was still a fair amount of room for interpretation.
This is an elegant-looking production too – it’s deceptively simple, all unfolding in the same room which doesn’t really change much throughout. But there are subtle, enjoyable differences between the past and the (near) present setting; the in-the-round staging affords a real sense of intimacy which serves this play well; and it all unfolds beneath a celestial light display which invokes the idea of two worlds overlapping. There’s some fine acting here, too – it’s an ensemble piece, with each actor delivering a commendable turn.
We should caveat this review by noting that Arcadia probably won’t be for everyone; this epic lasts for nearly three hours and it’s quite a cerebral play. The dense, intense text explores a range of big, abstract ideas – it demands complete concentration from its audience. If you’re happy to invest, though, Arcadia is a hugely rewarding experience – it’s absolutely fascinating.
GAY TIMES gives Arcadia – 4/5
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