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Summary: An English Point of View
Review: Having been studying this text in England for my exams, I must point out that when you think Stoppard is showing off to the audience, he is not. By using such complex subject matter, and mathematical theories, he is poking fun at the "dons" of the world who are sitting in the audience enjoying their own private chuckle. In order for this text to be fully understood, it must be seen. Stoppard is not showing off his knowledge, he is merely creating yet more humour by mocking those literary characters who think that they know everything.
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Summary: HSC student review
Review: i am studying this play for costume design in my final year at school and i am just overwhelmed at the intellegence of tom stoppard to write a play this involved with so many different issues at the same time. The sexual tension, philosophy, social values and interactions are so closly linked with every word said in this play, that the reader must read it over and over because it is so good.
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Summary: excellent!!!!
Review: I have never read, or seen a more wonderful play!! It contains everything one could ever want-conflict, gardens, sex, love, romance. It's an intellectual party for all of your senses. I highly reccomend it! Enjoy!!
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Summary: An intellectual piece....
Review: I have read this play, and acted in it (as Bernard and Chater) and I find it to be a very, very intelligent play. It shows that intellectual theatre still exists these days, and I think Tom Stoppard deserves a big congratulations. Though it lacks the overall pizzaz of some other contemporary plays (such as the Buddy Holly story, which I have also acted in) it makes a few seemingly simple events seem earth-shaking, and entertaining.
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Summary: magic
Review: I just finished reading this book for the third time and every time I read it I love it a little more.Stoppard is simply a wonderful writer: witty, humorous, stimulating, crafty. His style is superb, and his creativity is amazing. Arcadia is my favorite of his plays, as it incorporates a superb blend of philosophy, science, love, and introspection into the fundamentals of human behavior. Arcadia is a quick read, I usually can flip through it in about three hours, but it is rich with profound revelations and hysterical quips. As far as good English writing goes, I think this is a must read (and a must re-read!).
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Summary: magic
Review: I just finished reading this book for the third time and every time I read it I love it a little more. Stoppard is simply a wonderful writer: witty, humorous, stimulating, crafty. His style is superb, and his creativity is amazing. Arcadia is my favorite of his plays, as it incorporates a superb blend of philosophy, science, love, and introspection into the fundamentals of human behavior. Arcadia is a quick read, I usually can flip through it in about three hours, but it is rich with profound revelations and hysterical quips. As far as good English writing goes, I think this is a must read (and a must re-read!).
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Summary: Many different views
Review: I just recently attended a performance of this play by a local theater group. During the intermission, I overheard many people talking about how badly this play was written and how it was completely unrepresentative of Stoppard, and it wasn't even funny at all. I thought about explaining the concept of "thoughtful laughter" to these people, but refrained, because my age is approximately one-third to one-fourth of theirs. I don't agree. I found this play exceedingly entertaining, if I listened only for the puns, jokes, double entendres, and other language manipulations. On a level beyond that, the stories of the characters themselves can be wittily playful one minute and poignantly touching the next. Deeper still were the philosophical implications of what Stoppard said, how the intellectual and the emotional have to meet (as they did, in one character). Basically, the play is about two groups of people, one in 1809, and one in the present. Those in 1809 are dealing with scandals, schoolwork, and sitting rooms, while those in the present are researching the characters that appear in the other part. It is nice to know a bit about chaos theory, thermodynamics, Lord Byron, and botany (can you recognize a dahlia on sight?) when reading or seeing this play, but it's not necessary. (I.E., if you've read Jurassic Park, that's all you need to know about chaos theory. If you know what a reversible equation is, then you're fine there, and, well, Lord Byron was a English Romantic poet.) The person with whom I attended this play made a very cogent comment about the play: "If you only get one joke in five, then that's enough to think it's funny." But if you're one of those lucky people like me who understood a lot more than that, then this is a witty, poignant, suspenseful, and intelligent play, quite like _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead_. It is, in my opinion, neither unrepresentative of Stoppard nor badly written. Go see it!
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Summary: An amusing and intellectually sharp piece of work!
Review: I read this book for my first-year-seminar on Chaos (at Barnard College). I did not actually think that the sections relating to Chaos (which put this book on the course reading list) were particularly thought-provoking. However, I enjoyed the book as a whole. The very best parts are the dialogue between Septimus Hodge (the dashing, witty tutor), and Thomasina Coverly (his young pupil, who is keenly and brilliantly aware of everything around her, and at the same time very childlike, naive, and innocent.) The two are soulmates on an intellectual level, and the interactions between them are among the funniest and most poignant I have ever read in a play of this era. Their modern counter-parts (this play switches between two time periods) are frankly sort of boring, but I think that Tom Stoppard does this on purpose: He shows the contrast between the charmed lives of these young, victorian-era geniuses, and the pretentious, repressed lives of the scientists of modern day. Anyway, however slow the 1990s scenes are, the scenes in the early 1800s make it all worth it. Read this play!
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Summary: Brilliant piece of work
Review: I truly believe this is the best play, or work of any type of fiction, that I have ever read. Stoppard combines elements of science, drama, time and love to form a brilliant play. I got so caught up in it I couldn't put it down until I was done. And when I finished I read it again. This play weaves so many elements into it that each reading holds a new surprise.
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Summary: An amazing play that I'd love to see again!
Review: I'm thirteen years old and saw this play acted out just this summer. I saw it five times and each and every time I noticed something differant. Something I'd missed before. I had read it too, but to get the best from this play you really need to _see_ it. Beautiful dialogue and real characters. A thought provoking story that leaves you wondering.
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