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Reflecting upon the implications of the second law of thermodynamics doesn't exactly sound like a walk in the park, but it is, in more ways than one, in Tom Stoppard's richly layered comedy Arcadia.
Set at a sprawling English country estate called Sidley Park, Arcadia explores academia, art, nature, love and life in general through the lenses of two different time periods nearly two centuries apart.
TheatreWorks begins its 35th season with Stoppard's uniquely insightful work, which opens June 19 in Mountain View.
Arcadia jumps back and forth in time between scenes of the wealthy Coverly family and their friends and servants, who occupy Sidley Park in the year 1809, and the manor house's present-day residents, which include another generation of Coverlys and two authors who are researching the estate's archives.
But the two time periods are connected by more than just sharing the same space. The thoughts and emotions of the early 19th-century and the present-day dwellers of Sidley Park have much in common.
Central among these are the ideas of 19th-century schoolgirl Thomasina Coverly, whose observations about the behavior of everyday objects suggest her capacity for mathematical genius to her modern-day relative, Valentine Coverly, himself a mathematician who builds upon Thomasina's theories.
Arcadia draws on a number of scholarly subjects, and the play even includes a cameo appearance--of sorts--by legendary poet Lord Byron (whose character looms large in the past and present alike at Sidley Park). Although Stoppard expounds upon many erudite topics, they illuminate surprisingly accessible ideas, and the play easily offers as many laughs as it does lessons.
Stoppard is perhaps best known as the author of the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which later became a film he wrote and directed, and as an Oscar-winning screenwriter for Shakespeare in Love. Stoppard's penchant for mental gymnastics and witty wordplay are alive and well in Arcadia.
TheatreWorks' artistic director Robert Kelley directs, with a cast that includes J. Paul Boehmer, Alison Walla, Christopher Kelly and Mark Phillips (see story on final page of this section).
TheatreWorks presents "Arcadia" June 19July 11 (previews June 1618) at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. Tickets are $20$50. For more information, call 650.903.6000 or see www.theatreworks.org.
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