Arcadia

By: Tom Stoppard

Narrated by: Kate Burton, Mark Capri, Jennifer Dundas, Gregory Itzin, Christopher Neame, Peter Paige, Douglas Weston

Tom Stoppard's Arcadia merges science with human concerns and ideals, examining the universe's influence in our everyday lives and ultimate fates through relationship between past and present, order and disorder and the certainty of knowledge. Set in an English country house in the years 1809-1812 and 1989, the play examines the lives of two modern scholars and the house's current residents with the lives of those who lived there 180 years earlier.

An L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance featuring:

Kate Burton as Hannah

Mark Capri as Chater

Jennifer Dundas as Thomasina

Gregory Itzin as Bernard Nightingale

David Manis as Captain Brice

Christopher Neame as Noakes/Jellaby

Peter Paige as Valentine

Darren Richardson as Augustus

Kate Steele as Chloe

Serena Scott Thomas as Lady Croom

Douglas Weston as Septimus

Music composed and arranged by John Rubinstein.

Includes an interview with Steven Strogatz, the author of Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos and professor at the Cornell University School of Theoretical and Applied Mathematics.

Directed by John Rubinstein. Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood, in December of 2008.

Arcadia is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series featuring science-themed plays. Major funding for the Relativity Series is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, bridging science and the arts in the modern world.

©2009 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2009 L.A. Theatre Works

Critic reviews

“Tom Stoppard’s richest, most ravishing comedy to date. A play of wit, intellect, language, brio and emotion,” and The Royal Institution of Great Britain calls it: “the best science book ever written.” ( )The New York Times)

Cultural shifts and imagination

How do you develop the capacity to link, in a continuous loop, the most abstract and the most concrete? By fleeing from one culture to another and to another and having to make sense of it all. This is what Tom Stoppard has done. From the eye of a chaotic experience to imagine order. Wethankhim.

Choas theory, literture, geometry and more explored with wit and style

Tom Stppard has a way of convert complex mathematical theories into eloquently written plays with memorable characters. He does this again with 'Arcadia'. Natural science goes head to head with Newtonian laws in provincial Derbyshire as a genius child, her gruff tutor, a cuckold Lord, an antagonistic researcher and others dance through Stoppards language and conceits. Add in the brilliant cast and productions values and you have a winner with this production. That's a good thing for me, not being a theorist of any kind. But I can appreciate a well written play, excellent acting and the ability to expand my horizons and this play offers all of these with a wit and accessibility for everyone.

Genius

What did you love best about Arcadia?

What I loved most? Wow, I'd be hard pressed to say since the entire play is great. I could pinpoint a favorite line, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Thomasina, for sure. I've always imagined having a daughter like her. Something about a strong willed precocious female protagonist really draws me in.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was an ensemble cast rather than a single narrator.

Any additional comments?

I had to analyze this play for a class and I can't wait to listen to it again. The actors are superb and foley is spot on. I read this play while listening to it at the same time; there are very few liberties taken with stage direction, but the ones that were better served the listening experience.

Very Enjoyable

I saw this production in London in 1994 ( I believe this was the year) and was brought back to remember the simple sets. This play was a good choice for audio production and the acting was superb!

Great play

So glad to have found one of my very favorite plays available through audible! Fond memories of the original Broadway production and the revival made me wary to listen to a different cast, but the performances were fine all around. Gotta love Stoppard for his ability to combine so many cerebral disciplines into a fun & entertaining play.

Notice things now I didn't notice 30 years ago

The first thing to be aware of is that this was written 30 years ago, when there was less awareness of the impact of certain words, and less awareness of how much women's opinions were marginalized.

That said, assuming you can forgive certain characters their shortcomings, the play in some ways works even better now with that awareness, and the ideas put forward carry more weight because of the loss of opportunity.

The cast is what makes this possible. The late Gregory Itzin somehow makes Nightingale more than a misogynist. Kate Burton holds him to account as Hannah with how she speaks as much as what she says. Douglas Weston as Septimus and Jennifer Dundas as Thomasina are the emotional and philosophical heart, because everything they say feels real. Every character, and every actor, delivers a moment that sets them apart.

And the science, and the philosophy that frames the play layer after layer. Tom Stoppard is known for this layering across his plays - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead; The Real Thing; The Real Inspector Hound; etc. Like the mathematics that are referenced in the play, you can find a number of different patterns in the play itself, feeding back into the concepts the play itself discusses.

I also highly recommend the interview with the Cornell University researcher that follows the production which stirs all of those ideas again.

Great version of Arcadia

Very well-performed recording of Arcadia. Audio quality excellent. I loved the bonus interview with Steven Strogatz at the end.

Well performed and has a good bonus interview

We bought this after being frustrated at a live performance where we couldn’t make out all the words. This recording exceeded our expectations, with clear dialog delightfully dramatized plus the interview about chaos theory and how the play relates to what went on in real life.

Excellent!

I loved everything from the writing to the performance to the little podcast at the end! Definitely a good choice for those interested in science, math, and history!

Great production

This audible performance of Arcadia is very well acted and produced. My chief criteria for these audible plays are: (1) How closely does the performance stick to the script - i.e. have they omitted a significant portion of the dialog? (2) Sound quality: does it sound like they recorded a live stage performance with a microphone sitting on a corner of the stage, or was it recorded specifically for a listening audience? And do they use sound effects well?

On both accounts this is a high-quality production. It is also a charming, funny and intelligent play.