Thursday, October 28, 2010

Whatever Experience You Bring to Arcadia, It Illuminates

We are all Thomasina Coverly, in our own way.    

In her innocence and youth, she embodies the persistence of curiosity, the puzzled determination in finding answers, and the explosive excitement of wanting to be the first to have ever thought a specific thought.  Arcadia’s budding intellectual, played so delightfully by apprentice Alex Wiles, (whose blogs on the process of creating her character have been in this space over the last month) brings wonder to all that unfolds in front of her. Though we may be older than 13, we remember Thomasina and carry her with us.  

Thomasina’s tutor, Septimus Hodge inspires plenty of laughs, and in his eyes one easily sees the ebbing of youth: he is challenged and provoked by his younger pupil.  We laugh because we experience ourselves, as parents or teachers or older siblings, within him.  

The rigorous and independent scholar in Arcadia, (Hannah Jarvis), strongly played by Jennie Meharg, evades introspection and delightfully misses her primary subject: herself.  The splashy rock-star scholar, brought to life by Adrian Rieder, makes glaring errors in his research that we find funny----his gut-reactions blind him to the facts.  

And on and on.  We find parts of ourselves in each of the characters.  

Director Foster Solomon and his company of actors, crew, and designers have created a beautifully haunting, delicious romp between two time periods.  Becky Cairns is designing in her favorite period, and it shows.  The costumes reflect her brilliance and excitement.  Brian Barker (Sound of Music, others) has crafted an elegant set---designing each piece to fit through a barely-six-foot-wide door into the Gottwald.  Some are as high as 16’ and complete an arc across that expanse, but in sections. No mean feat. Gregg Hillmar’s lights include sunrises and sunsets, echoes of fireworks, chandeliers and wall lamps that flicker so believably you’d swear they were gas.  Our volunteers gave time, effort, and (sometimes back-breaking) work.  I want to say thank you to all of them.  I have been (and am) thrilled with the work of every single artist on Arcadia, and proud to be associated with them.

Light, love, life and energy flow out of all their work, (and Stoppard’s) in which
“…the unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is.  It’s how nature creates itself, on every scale, the snowflake and the snowstorm.”
…And human beings.  “It’s wanting to know that makes us matter.”

It’s for this reason that Richmond Shakespeare is performing Arcadia. It’s why I selected the play, and why our artists, staff, board and volunteers struggled to bring it to you---to our audiences.  It’s the closest to Shakespeare we’re likely to find for many years to come.   Daniel Hannan from the London Telegraph gives his thoughts on Shakespeare and Stoppard:
“I’ve made this observation before about the greatest writer of them all – whom Stoppard rather sweetly refers to as “The Champ”. Not many authors in the intervening 400 years achieve the same effect – which is perhaps the highest compliment I can offer our chief living playwright.”
 Hannan describes:
“I recalled, in particular, staggering out of a performance of Arcadia 15 years ago, convinced that it was the supreme theatrical work of our era. Whatever experience you bring to it, it illuminates your experience more than your experience illuminates it.” [emphasis mine]
Watching Arcadia, we see how elements combine, how time periods intertwine, how people and aspects of human nature interact.  Sometimes they are quiet and clear, sometimes producing tension or explosions.  This play is music and gunfire.  It contains Byron’s poetry, Newton’s science, sex, travel, nature, and religion.  These are not what this play is about, but merely elements used to demonstrate Stoppard’s reaching out to teach the Thomasina in each of us.
“When we have found all the mysteries, and lost all the meaning, we will be alone, on an empty shore.”
Come see this play.  Bring your experiences.  Find yourself surrounded in childlike wonder at finding the meaning within.  

Grant Mudge
October 27, 2010

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