ARCADIA
CODS SPRING PLAY - 10TH TO 12TH APRIL 2025
Tom Stoppard's ARCADIA
Directed by Mark Perrian & Louise Franklin. Contact - louisefranklin4@gmail.com
Set across two time periods - 1809 and present day, the action revolves around the teenage Thomasina Coverley and her investigation of maths and physics,as well as her coming of age and understanding of the world. Guided by her tutor, Septimus Hodge (who is actually far more interested in amorous encounters with ladies of the house), she sets about trying to prove Fermat’s last theorem, while he dodges the ire of Ezra Chater (whose wife he has seduced). Chater is a ridiculous character who fancies himself a poet and is easily fooled, especially as Septimus is a friend of Lord Byron. All of this takes place at the country estate of Lady Croom (Thomasina’s mother), who has also employed landscape gardener Richard Noakes to create a classic garden, complete with hermitage. Her brother, Captain Brice, will also fall in love with Mrs Chater....
She also has another son, Augustus, who succeeds in annoying everyone and making trouble...
In the present day, two academics meet at the house: Hannah Jarvis is an author who is researching the hermit of Sidley Park and meets another academic, Bernard Nightingale, whorather snootily disdains her work on Byron, but becomes very excited about the connection to the Chaters and a possible Byronic duel in 1809...
Chloe Coverly is the teenage/ young daughter of the present day Lady Croom and is as equally precocious as her antecedent, Thomasina. Her plot to get Hannah and Bernard together has u foreseen consequences...
Her older brother, Valentine, is obsessed with mathematics and proves to be a pivotal figure in our understanding of anything, while their younger brother, Gus may be mute, but is a real link between past and present This is a play that constantly shifts between the two time periods to keep us guessing (and laughing) at which of our two academics will piece evidence together to unravel exactly what went on at the house in 1809.
Who was the hermit? Who fought the duel? Who was seduced by whom? Why is the garden so important? And why should everyone know a little more maths and physics to understand human relationships and love?
All will be revealed!