Arcadia

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and important dramatic work.
Review: I've been trying to get away from the sort of highbrow self-referential philosophical literature that one thinks of when they hear the name Stoppard, but after reading Arcadia I found that this reputation proved to be only half the story.

Don't get me wrong-- Arcadia is an intellectual work of drama. It can be read and analyzed for symbolism and layering and all the fun that one typically associates with "Great Literature". Stoppard demands elementary knowledge of thermodynamics (entropy), modern mathematics (iterations and chaos theory), gardening history (Classic/Romantic), and literary history (Byron, Romanticism, etc.) There is tons of symbolism and contrast and notions about human nature. But despite all the intellectual games and word play, Arcadia manages to retain a profound sense of humanness.

The characters are vibrant and full of desire. They are not merely facades through which Stoppard can show off his literary prowess. Arcadia is simply a wonderful story. In the end, one cares about the characters and this is what redeems the play from mere intellectual showmanship. The plot moves and weaves and twists and if you can follow it, the play is truly rewarding.

My only misgiving is that I never got to see Arcadia in production. The last scene incorporates two different time periods on the same stage as they couples dance side by side in almost mirror image. I would have loved to see it done on stage and I'm eagerly awaiting an Arcadia revival.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best plays of the 20th century.
Review: I've read this, I've acted in it (Septimus Hodge) and I've seen the stage version at Lincoln Center. This is quite simply one of the most intriguing, complex, moving works of literature written in the 20th century. Read it. Twice. Then read it again. It's that rich.

Rating:
Summary: Close, but no cigar
Review: It was an interesting premise as far as the weaving in and out of time was concerned. What interested me the most was the philosophical musings on the nature of the universe as it relates to the field of mathematics. It was a quick read, but in the end I felt unsatisfied with the plot resolution (lack of) and the character development.

Rating:
Summary: HSC student review
Review: Let's get my bias out of the way: I believe Tom Stoppard to be the greatest writer of our time. He is brilliant in way that most of us cannot even comprehend, let alone begin to achieve, and I'll argue that Arcadia reflects Tom Stoppard's brilliance at its brightest.

The entire play is a metaphor of its own plot, and every sentence and stage direction reflects that. Nothing can be taken for granted, nothing unecessary is included, and the result is one of the most finely crafted pieces of stage writing I have encountered. Every time I read Arcadia (or see it performed) I discover layer upon layer of meaning of which I had previously been unaware.

Anyone who appreciates the clever will fall in love with Arcadia.

Rating:
Summary: Arcadia; a metaphor for itself
Review: Let's get my bias out of the way: I believe Tom Stoppard to be the greatest writer of our time. He is brilliant in way that most of us cannot even comprehend, let alone begin to achieve, and I'll argue that Arcadia reflects Tom Stoppard's brilliance at its brightest.

The entire play is a metaphor of its own plot, and every sentence and stage direction reflects that. Nothing can be taken for granted, nothing unecessary is included, and the result is one of the most finely crafted pieces of stage writing I have encountered. Every time I read Arcadia (or see it performed) I discover layer upon layer of meaning of which I had previously been unaware.

Anyone who appreciates the clever will fall in love with Arcadia.

Rating:
Summary: The best English-language play of the 20th century
Review: Okay, I haven't read all of them, but I can't believe anything better than Arcadia could have been written. This play addresses the essential ideas of our century, and perhaps of the last millenium, better than any other work of art I know of.

Rating:
Summary: Wry commentary on human nature
Review: One of my classes this semester is a playwriting course, so I turned to Stoppard to give me some inspiration and guidance in the process of creation. I've not seen much Stoppard performed--only Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Rough Crossing--but I liked both of those very much. A classmate recommended this play, and it was in my AlexLit recommendation list as well.

After reading it, I am not surprised. The basic plot is similar in many ways to A.S. Byatt's Possession, which I waxed effusive about way back in Installment 7. In 1809 in a country house in Derbyshire, Septimus Hodge is tutoring a young woman named Thomasina. In the modern day, some of Hodge's letters and effects are being studied by some academics, one of whom is determined that Lord Byron was present and is responsible for two scurrilous reviews in the Picadilly Review. The academic, of course, hopes to make his career on this.

Stoppard and Byatt part ways, though, in the meaning that they attach to the machinations of academics trying to discover the "truth" of the past. Byatt's entire book was a study of the word "possess," and what it meant both for her fictious poets and the modern day literary detectives. Stoppard, however, is exploring a difference in temperament between the times, but how sex is and has always been a disruptive force. It's a wry commentary on human nature.

Rating:
Summary: heavenly indeed
Review: read this book. if you like tom stoppard, if you like math, if you like sex, or chaos theory, or history and archeaology, if you like literature, or love or music or dancing, read this book. thanks to stoppard, we see how all these things come together, through a witty exchange of dialogue that is both comic and tragic, but ultimately a moving and thought provoking literary masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Genius with a heart
Review: Some may criticise Stoppard for being 'all brains with no heart', but with Arcadia he has proved his critics wrong. This is an extraordinary play, for not only does it deal expertly with scientific issues, but it manages to be brilliantly funny and poignant. The final scene in particular with Septimus and Thomasina is undeniably tragic (I won't give away any more than that!)and thought-provoking, yet at no point does the play fall victim to over-sentimentality. Almost as good to read as it is to perform, Arcadia is without doubt Stoppard's masterpiece - which says a great deal considering the strength of many of his other works. In short, Arcadia is a play of fascinating ideas, combined with all the ingredients of great entertainment.

Rating:
Summary: It's about the second law of thermodynamics
Review: Stoppard again weaves philosophy, science, history and literature into a drama. Although the play is really about the second law of thermodynamics (which says that the universe is gradually becoming more, not less, diffuse and chaotic), we get a merry dose of literature (Byron). There is an oblique nod to Lady Ada Lovelace, Byron's daughter, who worked with mathematician Charles Babbage in developing the theory of the programmable computer. That nod is manifest as the budding genius Thomasina, who works out theromodynamics and chaos theory (in the early 19th Century!) as the landscape gardeners outside gradually follow romanticism and turn her mother's manicured garden into a more natural (read chaotic) environment.

The real surprise comes when the the early 19th century scene is invaded by 20th century characters who are trying to piece together exactly what happened here nearly 200 years previously. A doomed enterprise, Thomasina could have told them. The Second Law of Thermodynamics says you cannot recapture the past.