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Stoppard's Times
By John Papageorge
Lord Byron's seductive enigma evoked the spirit of his age; the romantic poet was passionate, intelligent and self-destructive. His spirit lurks in the shadows of Tom Stoppard's smart, moving new play, Arcadia, now at the Stage Door Theater in San Francisco. Arcadia marks that elusive intersection where intellect and passion, where rationale thought and romantic ideals, come together.
The play oscillates between two time periods--the early 19th-century and the present--and features two sets of characters in the same stately estate in the English countryside. In present time, Bernard Nightingale, a zealous literary scholar, excitedly pursues what he believes to be a dramatic mystery involving Byron, a sex scandal and a lame poet by the name of Ezra Chater. In the historical scenes, we see the characters in that burgeoning mystery.
Nightingale, played with sweaty brow and excitable energy by Graham Beckel, attempts to entice Hannah Jarvis, a reserved author (played with a thoughtful degree of English properness and reserve by Katherine Borowitz) to help him unravel the puzzle. Jarvis, who has little time for frivolous romantic notions and sentimentality, personifies a rigid perspective on life and science; her house guest, Valentine Coverly, a young scientist, on the other hand, pursues the more whimsical principles of chaos, disorder and chance. Both Jarvis and Valentine eventually realize that Nightingale's finding has little to do with Byron but instead unveils the scientific work of a long-forgotten female prodigy by the name of Thomasina.
Although Stoppard's script occasionally labors on the definition of algorithms and thermodynamics, the playwright effectively captures his characters' emotional response to both science and literature. The concept of time is also explored and manipulated. In the 19th-century scenes, Thomasina's tutor, Septimus Hodge (played with comic charm by Daniel Cantor), explains that time cannot run backward, although Stoppard himself deftly fast forwards to the present and rewinds to the past.
Cantor's stage presence, deadpan delivery and devilish sex appeal make Septimus one of the play's many treats. When the failed poet Chater (created with flushed red cheeks and perpetual frustration by actor Tom Lenoci) accuses Septimus of "offending his wife," the tutor tries to calm him down by explaining, "I didn't offend her--I made love to her." Kimberly King, who plays Thomasina's mother, Lady Croom, also captivates with a graceful stage presence and excellent timing.
Arcadia touches lightly upon subjects ranging from mortality to fidelity and even to landscape architecture. The play's structural breach from linear direction dramatically unravels the play's mystery bit by bit. And although Byron himself never makes an appearance, all the characters--both present and past--are somehow touched by his adventurous spirit.
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Arcadia is a chronological Mystery
Arcadia plays Tuesday�Sunday at 8pm, with matiness Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 and Sundays at 3 throgh Dec. 3 at the Stage Door Theater, 420 Mason St., San Francisco. For ticket information call (415) 749-2ACT.
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