Arcadia

I am quite a Negative Nelly in my LJ, aren't I? Well, that's probably because when you see something as good as The Publick Theatre's Arcadia, there's very little to say about it. The chemistry was perfect (I finally *got* the relationships, some of which--Thomasina and Septimus, Valentine and Hannah--make it tricky to figure out exactly how the characters feel about each other), the costumes and the accents right, the jokes came through, the actors actually appeared to understand what they were saying and why--it was what a play was supposed to be, a flesh-and-blood filling out that makes the lines on paper look like a sketch. All the details were there. Whether it was Valentine urging on his turtle to race with enthusiastic motions, or Thomasina slyly glancing at Septimus after getting him out of trouble by pretending ignorance about "carnal embrace," or Gus covering his ears during an all-out shouting match--the characters were constantly, beautifully, in character, not just people declaiming lines. Even the reaction the 19th century characters had to the helicopters that always seem to haunt outdoor productions like mosquitoes around a bonfire--a stupified, wonderous, silent glance that let them wait out the loudest part of the disturbance--was brilliant. After Travesties I had been despairing of Stoppard on the stage; Arcadia gives me hope again.

A side note--one of my favorite things about Arcadia is the way the history feels like real history and the math like real math, the kind where ordinary people can get the thrill of discovery from looking at gamebooks about grouse or following up the trail of whether or not some 19th century poet wrote a book review, not some stagey version of it where the ignored maverick locks himself in a closet overnight and hey presto, here comes the Fields Medal (yes Proof I'm talking about you). Very refreshing, and even inspiring.

Other new things I noticed from seeing it:

The final dialogue between Septimus and Thomasina ("You must" / "I will not") is a distillation of the determinism/free will point.
The poem of Byron's that Hannah reads can be read as about the heat death of the universe.
Thomasina is supposed to wear her green velvet to meet the count because Zelinski derived from the word for green.

Science A-52 taught me that maybe Noakes wasn't deserving of such censure after all for his improved Newcomen engine. There was another guy who invented an improved Newcomen engine; his name (as any schoolgirl can tell you) was James Watt.