The show: “Arcadia” at Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven.
What makes it special?: A mounting of sumptuous centuries-jumping 1993 play by Tom Stoppard, who recently paid a visit to the Yale School of Drama and whose “Indian Ink” and “The Real Thing” are having major revivals in New York this season.
First impressions: The intellectual, existential and theatrical ride of a lifetime — and many lifetimes — is taking place on the York Street stage in downtown New Haven this month. In his dual story lines, both set in an English country estate in 1809 and nearly two centuries later, Stoppard presents captivating characters amid an array of theories of math, physics and philosophy. (He also throws in a dandy did-he-or-didn’t-he mystery of literary scholarship.)
But at the heart of it all is a celebration of the human search for knowledge. As one character says, “It’s the wanting to know that makes us matter,” and it’s that passionate quest in matters of the mind as well as the flesh that makes this splendid production so fun, touching and thrilling.
What it is about: Good lord, where do I begin? Lady Croom (Felicity Jones) is re-doing the manse’s landscape, changing it from its classical composition to a more natural wildness in the “new” romantic style. Her precocious daughter, 13-year-old girl Thomasina (Rebekah Brockman) and her handsome tutor Septimus (Tom Pecinka) talk about theorems of math, science and nature. There are also libidinous goings-on, especially with the unseen wife of a second-rate poet who is visiting (Jonathan Spivey).
Then the play time-jumps to the modern era when a pair of literary rivals Hannah Jarvis (Rene Augesen) and the celebrity-smitten academic Bernard Nightingale (Stephen Barker Turner) are doing research in the mansion’s family archives, trying to discover what exactly happened in the home during this transformative period, including a mysterious hermit and a visit by Lord Bryron.
The play goes back and forth in time in the same room, with the characters in the past offering clues to the present’s literary detectives. But it’s clear that it is the mysteries of the universe that are really on Stoppard’s mind: the constant tug between order and disorder, what is known and what is unknown, things lost and found and the endless swirl of life, love and matter — as well as finding out what really matters.
Also featured in the 20th century scenes are Valentine Coverly (Max Gordon Moore), a mathematical whiz and a distant relative of Thomasina; his sister Chloe (Annelise Lawson), who has a few theories of her own, mostly of the carnal variety; and their younger brother, mute Gus (Bradley James Tejeda). In the 19th century, there’s the landscape gardener Noakes (Julian Gamble); Captain Brice, the brother of Lady Croom (Graham Rowat); and Jellaby, the butler (Michael Rudko).
Stoppard balances his scenes, juggles all his characters and presents his exhilarating themes and theories exquisitely, knowing when to pull back with loopy humor, a mysterious tease or a dash of sex just before you feel your mind is going to implode into its own black hole.
Director James Bundy stages his wonderful cast with a nuanced and sure hand, allowing for just the right amount of chaos and control; Brockman shows delicacy and wonder as the forgotten genius; and Pecinka, a third-year MFA candidate, gives a terrific performance as the cavalier, canny and ultimately tender Septimus. Augesen is wonderfully witty yet grounded as Hannah, and Turner has a field day as the egocentric scholar who gets (almost) nothing right. Spivey makes his pathetic poet wonderfully comic without going over the edge. Jones, too, never pushes the epigrammatical humor, delivering Lady Croom’s moments in high sly fashion.
Especially impressive is Moore, who has to deliver a lot of scientific theories without losing the audience, but he’s so gentle, sweet and lovable that he makes an iterated algorithm sound cool.
Who will like it: The math department, the physics department, hell, all university departments — and lovers of smart engaging theater.
Who won’t: Those who like everything spelled out very clearly with one idea at a time, thank you very much.
For the kids?: AP students.
Twitter review in 140 characters of less: Rep’s ‘Arcadia’ dazzles, dances its way through universal theories and truths.
Thoughts on leaving the parking lot: Tom Stoppard’s reputation of complex intellect is so overwhelming that one sometimes forgets the fact that his works also have great depth of emotions. As much as I was left breathless by the playwright’s cascading concepts, I was deeply moved by the human dynamics, especially the story of a brilliant young girl born centuries before her time and the only man who appreciated her.
The basics: The show is playing at the University Theatre, 222 York St., in New Haven and runs through Oct. 25. Running time is three hours, including one intermission. Information: www.yalerep.org and 203-432-1234.
