"Arcadia," a mind-teasing search for truth among the English landscape and through the gamebooks of the Coverly household, premiered last night at the Hopkins Center with great energy, good acting and incredible costumes.
Dartmouth's cast, which includes visiting British actor Sam West, enthusiastically met the challenge of Tom Stoppard's elaborate and complex play which alternates from 1809 to the 1990s from scene to scene until the end when past and present collide.
Director James Loehlin correctly describes the script in the program, as a "masterpiece." His direction, while beautifully wrought, was sometimes lacking in creativity.
The play opened with lights up on Thomasina Coverly, a 13-year old aristocrat played gracefully by Amanda Jones '97, and Septimus Hodge, her tutor portrayed stunningly by West.
From the beginning, Jones provided great depth to her character by demonstrating both youth and innocence as well as the Coverly family genius. She manipulated her tutor, Hodge, who is nine years her senior, with unaffected ease, a characteristic shared by her mother, Lady Croom.
Lady Croom, played by Christina Ritter '99 also did a brilliant job of matching wits with Hodge.
Most importantly, she made Lady Croom into more than a sexually driven, control obsessed character. The character of Lady Croom has the potential to be a very flat and sarcastic personage and Ritter skillfully avoided the trappings inherent in her role.
West, although he occasionally dropped words at the ends of his sentences, was an absolute delight as Hodge. His portrayal as Thomasina's tutor was completely believable. He exhibited a true understanding of the math he claimed to teach while showing complete befuddlement at Thomasina's discovery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Ezra Chater, the poet and botanist who fiercely defends his promiscuous wife's honor until his death by monkey bite, is portrayed simply by Schuyler Hedstrom '99. While the character brings humor, Hedstrom's portrayal remained very flat, giving West very little to work with.
The modern-day scenes present Bernard Nightingale, an English professor played by Chris Ferry '95, engaged in conversation with the Coverly's garden historian, Hannah Jarvis portrayed smartly by Sarah Callies '99. The tension, interaction and excitement exchanged between these two characters helps the audience get through their less exciting scenes.
It is in the present where the history of the past is pieced together and the audience must give intense concentration to their every word, lest the entire story be lost.
This is particularly true in scene four when most of the details of the past are uncovered. The actors are forced to keep the pace very fast in order to remain entertaining but fail in this task during some parts.
Valentine Coverly, son of the present aristocrat, is played by Marc Bruni '99. Bruni, while explaining his mathematical theorems well, explains too slowly, which makes the audience lose focus.
Clearly Bruni is attempting to make Valentine more than a computer nerd silently plugging through his equations. However, he never makes Valentine into a truly warm person.
One point of interest is that Valentine mirrors a gesture of Thomasina's, which is a subtle but effective demonstration of familial relation. They both put their pinkies to their lips when thinking hard. This was quite a clever addition to Stoppard's already brilliant script.
After the well deserved intermission, the scenes in the present and past become more exciting as all of the puzzle pieces come together and romance enters the picture.
Stoppard's interlacing of the time periods on stage picks up the pace of the play. There is well-rehearsed waltzing and beautiful music.
In the final scene, which alludes to the death of Thomasina, the audience is allowed to relax their brain muscles and enjoy the pure intellectual excitement in Hannah Jarvis's statement "It's wanting to know that makes us matter."
The cast carries the twisted plot of the playwright off brilliantly and excitingly, convincing the audience that now really "is the best time to be alive," as Valentine stated.
