So I am back from the production of Arcadia that was a sold-out hit at Shaw in 2013. It was brought back by Mirvish Productions, and it appears to feature the entire cast from last summer. I think it is doing well, though there were quite a few empty seats, so if anyone is interested, then it is worth a call. Now I was not crazy about the seats in the upper balcony (far too narrow) and fortunately I was able to move down to a seat where I wasn't quite so squeezed after the intermission. I have to say, Mirvish, just as the Broadway houses, has a pretty crazy pricing policy, and I think they would actually get higher yields if they didn't grossly overprice the various seats in the upper balcony. (I have the same complaint about Tarragon, which is trying to get people to commit to new plays, which is laudable, but at a fairly absurd price point. I've seen a very positive review of Sextet and one that found it enjoyable but shallow -- I suspect I would fall into the latter camp, but will not spend $55 to find out. If the tickets end up half-price, I would probably go.) Enough quibbling about price, the Shaw/Mirvish production is definitely worth the money. I've seen a brilliant production at Court Theatre in Chicago (they always do right by Stoppard) and a good production at A.C.T. in San Francisco. This was arguably even better than the Court version, but it might have something to do with the fact that I know the play quite well now.
I suppose it is one of those plays that improves with familiarity, as there is just so much thrown at you -- the intricacies of academic politics, a bit of Latin, a short treatise on the history of the English garden, some higher order maths (some of which I still can't entirely follow), a fairly succinct illustration of the signal to noise ratio issue and Thomasina's vision of the heat death of the universe. To add to that, you have nearly as many mismatched couplings at in Midsummer's Night's Dream (though most are off-stage and only the outcomes are observed) and frustrated passion. I won't go into any details but there is a truly tragic death somewhat put into perspective by the Olympian perspective of one of the characters who says it is all a bit trivial and a couple who seem to have a somewhat calm acceptance of death (at least in the abstract). However, Stoppard ends on an upbeat note, having us watch Septimus teaching Thomasina to waltz and then, in an overlay, Hannah the cold, even frigid, academic dances a bit with Gus, the perhaps autistic young man of the manor house. It's a reminder of looking for the moments of grace on the march to the grave (whereas Beckett seems far more mired in the pointlessness of the struggle). I would say that of the various times Stoppard uses this technique (that is, characters overlapping on stage but not really in the same frame), this is the most successful. I don't think it works at all in The Coast of Utopia, since there is no reason for us to know that the two groups are not in the same space, and it is a lame reference to Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe. I also remembering not caring too much for the quasi-dream sequence at the beginning of Act II of Night and Day.
Nonetheless, I think it is a bit exhilarating, even a bit courageous in these days, that Stoppard really makes the audience work (far more than most playwrights) but there are some times that he does cheat a bit for a showy result (much like Septimus translating Shakespeare into Latin), and just isn't playing fair with the audience. That's certainly how I felt about that particular scene in The Coast of Utopia. I think it's fair to say that Arcadia is my favorite of all his plays with only a handful of dopey characters to move things in slightly unpredictable directions. Most of the characters are intelligent (in their favored spheres) and some are supposed to be quite brilliant indeed. I would say that my main quibble is that Bernard Nightingale is portrayed as too crass for my taste. Perhaps Stoppard has more experience with such foul-mouthed Oxbridge dons, but in my experience while they might well "work blue" with another academic, such as Hannah, they would never lose their temper or swear so much in front of minor aristocracy, particularly when Bernard still needed something from them. It's a minor point, but one that I wish Stoppard had tightened up just a bit. That's only a small point. I see from a quick review of the play that I lost one joke because I didn't quite catch the line (pretty sure I got it during the second production I saw) but on the whole sitting in the cheap seats didn't diminish the experience. It is just such a complex and rewarding play, showing that you can succeed with a play about intelligent characters having meaningful conversations. (It's not really a secret that Corporate Codes of Conduct is heavily influenced by Stoppard as is The Study Group. My other plays are a bit more conventional, as I was working out other issues in them.) If you have the opportunity in the next month or so, I would encourage attending this brilliant production of Arcadia. (I see that there are even a few discounted tickets at TOtix.)
It was back in April that I saw The Coast of Utopia at Shotgun Players in Berkeley. This is another deeply rewarding play, though I think it merits its own review. At this point, I will wait until I read the plays (probably mid December at my current rate of reading) and then review the production and the plays together or in paired reviews. I still can't believe that no company in Chicago has attempted this. As far as I know, it hasn't played in Canada at all. I would probably go see the trilogy a second time, but that might be it (whereas after enough time has passed, I might go see Arcadia a 4th time). The trilogy is a significant investment in time and effort, however, so I can see why companies are a bit shy about putting it on. Still, it is so rarely performed, that if done well, I think it would bring serious theatre buffs in for hundreds of miles around. At the Shotgun production, they actually had a group of Europeans, all related to Alexander Herzen, fly in for the last marathon night! Talk about dedication.
I am leaning more and more towards trying to work in a quick trip to Montreal next spring to see Stoppard's Travesties. It's an early play, somewhat in the spirit of Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, in the sense it is comic, even a bit manic at times, but it isn't as deep as his later plays, by which I mean it is more of an intellectual exercise (and a bit showy) but doesn't have as much actual human emotion. I've never seen Travesties, so I think seeing it in April or May, would cap off quite a run, stretching back to last April. Then perhaps I can start a Kushner run in the summer with the Canadian premiere of The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism With a Key to the Scriptures at Shaw. Not sure what else I have to see of Kushner, perhaps a remount of Slavs? (I just missed the Angels in America remount at Soulpepper, so that won't be coming around again for a while (probably).) Actually, I don't think I've seen anything from the collection Death & Taxes, neither Hydriotaphia nor any of the short plays, so that would be something to keep my eyes out for in 2015-16.
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