'Arcadia' review — this radiant production is a heartfelt, intellectually exhilarating tribute to Tom Stoppard

Read our review of Arcadia, starring Isis Hainsworth, now in performances at the Duke of York's Theatre to 12 September.

Summary

• Tom Stoppard's play Arcadia transfers to the Duke of York's Theatre
• Carrie Cracknell directs the hit production that began at the Old Vic
• Isis Hainsworth is wonderful as precocious Thomasina
• New cast members include Oliver Chris as an arrogant academic

First seen in 1993, Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia remains uncompromising in both scope and ambition. Combining vast subjects such as maths, landscape gardening, scientific theory, sex, and evolving knowledge, Stoppard is unafraid to challenge his audiences with his cerebral agility, yet there is also a huge amount of humour and heart thrown in. Brimming with big ideas, fierce intelligence, and some wonderful performances, Carrie Cracknell’s hit Old Vic production of the play now arrives in the West End.

Switching between two time periods on the same Derbyshire estate, we begin in 1803 where teenage prodigy Thomasina works with her tutor to accidentally uncover incredible scientific discoveries. In 1993, a pair of academics consult the descendants of the original characters about events that unfolded two centuries ago. With a wealth of misdirection, half-truths and false leads, the two timelines merge to create an engrossing and ultimately heartbreaking tale.

Reprising her Olivier-nominated performance, Isis Hainsworth is radiant as the precocious Thomasina Coverly, bringing flashes of mischief along with her youthfully innocent intelligence. Also returning to the production is Seamus Dillane as her suave and cynical tutor Septimus Hodge. The gorgeous chemistry between the pair has only increased, making their delicately evolving relationship and scenes of intellectual sparring sparkle, with no hint of impropriety.

Oliver Chris takes on the role of the increasingly self-satisfied and swaggeringly arrogant academic Bernard Nightingale, in the 1993 timeline, peaking to highly amusing effect in the second half. Nikki Amuka-Bird is a cool and calm foil as rival researcher Hannah Jarvis. Angus Cooper also returns as Valentine Coverly, who brims with awkward affection and erudition, although he has the tricky job of trying to explain much of the dense scientific theory. Matthew Steer continues comfortably as the idiotic Ezra Chater, and Yolanda Kettle is an icily grand Lady Croom, whose imperiousness sometimes dampens some of her wittiest lines.

As the actors breeze on and off the stage, Cracknell’s direction maintains the lightness and pace of the work, while also revelling in the joy that humanity can find in knowledge. In these days of infinite scrolling and AI-generated slop, it is heartening that this message continues to have so much resonance. Stoppard’s genius is that you don’t have to comprehend all the theories to understand the soul of the play.

It is the second time Arcadia has been housed at the Duke of York’s, following David Leveaux’s 2009 production with Dan Stevens and Nancy Carroll. Designer Alex Eales has transferred the Old Vic’s in-the-round setting, with its sparse revolve gently moving the characters through time and space. For those not seated on the stage, some of the intimacy of the previous iteration is inevitably lost. However Guy Hoare’s lighting has a delicate and ethereal quality, with two large illuminated concentric circles hanging above the set surrounded by glowing orbs, suggesting the vast universe constantly above.

For many, Arcadia is Stoppard’s best work and so it seems appropriate that its opening fell on the day it was announced that the Duke of York’s Theatre is to be renamed the Tom Stoppard Theatre. After his death last November, this transfer is a poignant, heartfelt, and intellectually exhilarating tribute to one of our greatest playwrights.

Arcadia is at the Duke of York's Theatre to 12 September. Book Arcadia tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Arcadia (Photos by Manual Harlan)