Dramaworks play smart, challenging, delightful
The story unfolds in two time periods simultaneously.
Weighty ideas intertwine with frolicsome wit in Palm Beach Dramaworks’ production of Tom Stoppard’s mind-bending “Arcadia.”
A play that munches through concepts such as chaos theory, the second law of thermodynamics, the value of art versus science and the fallibility of historical research could be a mighty bore. But Stoppard seduces us by placing them in a context that has more in common with a French farce than a textbook.
In Dramaworks’ J. Barry Lewissteered production, the comedy comes through loud and clear, as well as the sharply delineated characters and the entanglements that bind them.
The story unfolds in two time periods simultaneously at the Coverlys’ stately home in Britain.
In the early 1800s, a house party is going on, attended by an off-stage Lord Byron. In the schoolroom, Thomasina Coverly, a teenage mathematical prodigy, proposes ideas that are far ahead of her time during her lessons with her tutor Septimus Hodge. Meanwhile, Hodge dallies with the poet Ezra Chater’s wife, spurring Chater to challenge him to duel.
In the present, Hannah Jarvis, a literary scholar, is researching a mysterious hermit who lived at the Coverly estate in the early 19th century. Bernard Nightingale, a rival scholar, barges in, determined to prove his theory that Byron fled England because he killed Chater in a duel.
It’s a delight to watch the pieces fall into place like a top-notch mystery novel as the narrative slips from one time period to another.
Standouts among the excellent cast include Caitlin Cohn’s luminous and playful Thomasina, and the quick-witted charmer Hodge, portrayed by Ryan Zachary Ward. Cliff Burgess brightens every scene he’s in with his selfimportant and gullible Chater.
In the present day, Vanessa Morosco’s chilly Hannah could come off as ruthlessly intellectual, were it not for the flickers of uncertainty that glint through her performance. Peter Simon Hilton’s Bernard is amusingly familiar as a scholar more concerned with celebrity than fact.
Anne Mundell’s classical, allwhite set, with its French windows and pilasters, infuses the story with an otherworldly qualit y. Brian O’Keefe’s costumes, especially those worn fetchingly by Margery Lowe playing the tart Lady Croom, are an eyeful.
If you enjoy smart, funny and challenging entertainment, look no farther than Dramaworks’ “Arcadia.”