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THEATER REVIEW May 14, 2007 The heady complexities of Tom Stoppard -- a playwright whose allusions contain allusions to allusions -- have been amply noted. But even though his writing shows unusual political neutrality, he's among the greatest living playwrights because of the passion of his characters. Once a Stoppardian person unleashes the meaning of the universe, it's like an over-articulate revolutionary at the barricades. When done right, you get smacked right in the chops. Stoppard's "The Coast of Utopia," which recently finished its run at New York City's Lincoln Center, has that riveting, hopelessly impassioned quality. And so does director Charles Newell's provocatively assertive revival of "Arcadia" at Chicago's Court Theatre. Even as Stoppard's characters -- the pursued from the early 19th Century and the pursuers from the late 20th -- yak on about gardens, Newtonian physics, Lord Byron, mathematics and sex, the ever-smart Newell gives you the sense here that they're all a bunch of spluttering, well-dressed atomic particles whom he has dangerously unleashed on our world, much as Enrico Fermi and his nuclear crew once did in 1942, just a bit farther south on Ellis Avenue. "Arcadia" is a difficult work. Three verbose hours long, stuffed with myriad themes and set, simultaneously, on the same English country estate nearly 200 years apart as a bunch of mostly self-serving academics try to uncover the past, early productions of the play (such as Michael Maggio's famous version at the Goodman Theatre) were dominated by visual splendor. In 2004, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company offered a simpler, clearer staging, without the grand vista of the all-important garden outside the French windows. But it was, perhaps, a tad prosaic. Newell's approach is similarly lean (Matthew York's set is mostly a table and a bookcase), but he uncoils the play quite differently, exploding its usual realistic style. Newell's actors are happy to address the audience -- or climb on top of a table or splutter their way into the aisles. Unusual spotlights highlight ideas -- and, although it's still rooted in reality, the nature of this smart theatrical universe wisely keeps you guessing. Not all the stylized movement works (as ever, you can see the influence on Newell of the likes of Anne Bogart) and the early section of Act 2 sag for lack of appropriately bold ideas. But many of the scenes are quite dazzling in their intensity and excitement. It's a very stimulating and highly enjoyable close to the Court season. Smashing performances abound, including the suave Grant Goodman as the tutor Septimus Hodge and, especially, Erik Hellman as Valentine Coverly, that character's rough modern equivalent. Tortured, smart and weirdly emotional, Hellman offers a close-to-perfect performance. And Mary Beth Fisher (as a modern writer) and Bethany Caputo (as a prodigy from the past) offer stellar turns. Caputo really takes some risks and makes her choices work. In fact, the whole show works best in its boldest directorial moments, which makes you think it could have gone even further. Like David Mamet, Stoppard loves to ding academics. And as the straw professor of the play, actor Kevin McKillip plays things a tad too broadly for my tastes, but he's most certainly funny. That's part of the point of "Arcadia" -- might as well laugh as we careen into some universal block hole. But what of the play's main theme? Every time you see this fabulously complex comedy, you come up with something else. Interestingly enough, Newell's fresh production now makes me think this is a prescient play about sex and global warming, which wasn't even on the radar in 1993 (global warming that is). Through his pinball characters, Stoppard has us discover that the action of bodies in heat causes dissipation. So the world can't ever be fully renewed. And the future -- as if we didn't know already -- is disorder. "Arcadia"
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May 14, 2007 Thomasina Coverly, the preternaturally brilliant 14-year-old girl at the center of Tom Stoppard's play, "Arcadia," has this idea: If every atom in the world could be put in suspended motion for a second, and she were good enough at algebra, she could write the formula for how the entire universe operates. A very tall order, to be sure, especially since it is 1809, and Thomasina has only paper and pen, not computers, for her calculations. But Thomasina's time will run out far too soon, anyway. The fates have something far more random and final in store for her. All this is by way of saying that the subject of Stoppard's 1993 play is nothing less than the machinations of the universe, and of the human minds that try to make some sense of its miraculous design. And just like the meticulously landscaped gardens of Sidley Park -- the English country estate at the center of this dense, complexly patterned, endlessly fascinating, very demanding work -- the play incorporates layers of history and meaning, a sense of continual change, and a slew of interpretations and zany misinterpretations. No single viewing of "Arcadia" can fully uncover all its layers, cross-references and jokes. But director Charles Newell's graceful, crystalline, unsentimental revival, which opened Saturday at Court Theatre, is a clear guide to many of the garden paths, and it keeps you laughing and thinking all along the way. Crossing the centuries in this play is the Coverly family and its visitors. The 1986 crowd sits at the same grand table as their 1809 forebears, when such (unseen) guests as Lord Byron, the Romantic poet and revolutionary, briefly stopped by. What the future will hold is certainly on the minds of Thomasina (Bethany Caputo), and her tutor, Septimus Hodge (Grant Goodman), who is awed by his student's insights. But precisely what happened in 1809 is the question that obsesses the contemporary characters. History proves exceedingly elusive. And Stoppard suggests that the greatest source of chaos might just be the unpredictable lures of heart and flesh. Call it the impact of "carnal embrace," which, as Thomasina quickly realizes, is not quite the same thing as "throwing one's arms around a side of beef." So we have a play about sex, classical vs. romantic landscape design, the art of translation and quantum physics. That still leaves the biting competition between academic and popular writers; the fallibility of historical research; the continual emergence, loss and reemergence of knowledge; the value of science vs. art; the wonders of horticultural history, and the art of the waltz. And don't forget about rice pudding, either -- and why you can stir jam into the mix but not out of it. The actors in this play must be sharp as tacks, both intellectually and technically, and Newell has gathered a highly polished ensemble that includes the luminous, captivating Caputo and the edgy Goodman, who is drawn to both his student and her fetching mother, Lady Croom (Kate Fry at her sophisticated best), among others. In the contemporary realm is the historical novelist Hannah Jarvis (Mary Beth Fisher, who easily nails every sardonic beat); Bernard Nightingale (Kevin McKillip, who has a Kevin Kline-like comic panache), and best of all, Erik Hellman as Valentine Coverly, Thomasina's modern soul mate -- a scientist who wears his heart on his sleeve. Hellman makes the science come alive with the heat of true understanding and passion. Lending additional sparks are actors Gregory Anderson, Raymond Fox, Dominic Green and Cassandra Bissell, and designer Matthew York's ideally circular stage. hweiss@suntimes.com
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By Chris Jones [excerpted from longer article] HOTTEST TICKET ARCADIA: In Charles Newell's provocatively assertive revival of Tom Stoppard's prismatic 1993 drama "Arcadia" at Chicago's Court Theatre, the play's over-articulate characters -- the pursued from the early 19th Century and the pursuers from the late 20th -- yak on about gardens, Newtonian physics, Lord Byron, mathematics and sex. That's to be expected and enjoyed. But in this revisionist, daring and well-acted production, the ever-smart Newell gives you the sense that they're all a bunch of sputtering, well-dressed atomic particles he has dangerously unleashed on our world -- much as Enrico Fermi and his nuclear crew did in 1942 just a bit farther south on Ellis Avenue. It's all a thrillingly intellectual endeavor. Through June 10 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave.; $28-$54 at 773-753-4472 |
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