Arcadia

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Kelly, Katherine E., ed. (2001). The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-64592-8. In one period -- 1809 to 1812 -- it is the residence of Lord and Lady Croom, young Lady Thomasina Coverly (a young teen) and her tutor, Septimus Hodge, among others. I know of few serious plays that are as funny as Arcadia, and even fewer funny plays that are as serious." - Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal

Stoppard, Tom. Arcadia, L.A. Theatre Works Audio Theatre Collections, radio play (2009). Full-cast performance featuring: Kate Burton, Mark Capri, Jennifer Dundas, Gregory Itzin, David Manis, Christopher Neame, Peter Paige, Darren Richardson, Kate Steele, Serena Scott Thomas, and Douglas Weston. ISBN 978-1-5808-1596-3. (Available as e- audiobook through OverDrive.) Gus Coverly: Valentine and Chloe's younger brother, who has been mute since the age of five. Gus helps to pass several important props from past to present, and helps connect key moments in the play. (Gus and Augustus are played by the same actor.) Sex remains the final mystery of Arcadia. Septimus, in the conclusion of the play, reveals the final sadness and emptiness of an academic life: "When we have found all the mysteries and lost all the meaning, we will be alone, on an empty shore." Septimus implies that the mysteries of mathematics will someday be solved. As if knowing his own fate, Septimus embraces and kisses Thomasina in earnest, finally indulging in the mystery of his attraction and love. Septimus will not go to Thomasina's room, although she asks him, but he is restrained for a reason that remains unknown. Septimus realizes the ultimately unfulfilling nature of academic progress but will only tragically experience the fulfilling nature of love for a brief moment in a waltz and kiss with Thomasina. In the same manner, Hannah Jarvis submits to a dance with Gus. She, like Septimus, has solved her mystery and now looks to Gus for fulfillment and new mysteries. The Path of Knowledge a b c Edwards, Paul (2001). Kelly, Katherine E (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp.178–183. ISBN 0-521-64592-1.

The language of Arcadia switches between the colloquialisms of early 19th-century England and those of modern England. Stoppard's language reflects his periods, historical and modern, and he uses speech patterns and lexicons in keeping with his characters. Not that most of the other Arcadia figures don’t wax and wane compellingly through the two-act proceedings and across the centuries. Sidley Park’s Lady Croom (Lisa Birnbaum) is histrionic about the plans landscape architect Mr. Noakes (Jamie Smithson) has that would transform her formal gardens into seemingly untamed acreage. Poet Ezra Chater (Randolph Curtis Rand) strongly objects to tutor Hodge’s dalliance with his never seen wife.

Thomasina's tutor, Septimus Hodge stays at Sidley Park with the Coverly family and has affairs with married women (such as Mrs. Chater and Lady Croom). Hodge later falls in love with Thomasina, but she dies before their relationship can go anywhere. Septimus becomes the hermit at Sidley Park and spends the rest of his days after his protege's death trying to advance her theories. Charity ChaterIn Scene 5, Bernard begins to read his paper about Chater and Byron to the family. The siblings and Hannah interrupt many times, and Valentine points out that Bernard didn’t include the statistical data that go against his hypothesis. Bernard, offended by the challenge to his big idea, makes an impassioned case that poetry is more important than science, and Valentine storms out. Bernard invites Hannah to London “for sex,” but she dismisses the idea. Bernard leaves, and Hannah reads Valentine some new information from a 19th-century article about the hermit—the hermit was obsessed with mathematical ideas about the fate of the universe which sound suspiciously like Thomasina’s.