Everything you need to know about 'Arcadia'

Carrie Cracknell's Olivier-nominated production of Tom Stoppard's masterpiece transfers to the West End from the Old Vic.

Summary

• Arcadia plays at the Duke of York's Theatre from 20 June to 12 September
• Carrie Cracknell's production was nominated for two Olivier Awards at the Old Vic
• The play is set in two timelines and is both philosophical and fun!
• The play is often considered to be Tom Stoppard's masterpiece

Et in Arcadia ego… following a sold-out and highly acclaimed run at the Old Vic this spring, Carrie Cracknell’s exquisite in-the-round production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia now transfers to the West End for a limited run. Set in a country house over two time periods, the play showcases a collision of love and knowledge, the beauty of curiosity, and the thrill of discovery.

Says producer Sonia Friedman: “Arcadia always stood apart. It holds so much of what made [Stoppard] extraordinary - its playfulness, precision, wit, romance, and that deep curiosity about how we make sense of the world. Coming back to it now, I’m struck all over again by how alive it feels”.

In a four-star review at the Old Vic, LondonTheatre.co.uk’s reviewer remarked that “It’s striking watching it now, in an age preoccupied with the rise of artificial intelligence, the extent to which it’s a hymn to the power of the human brain."

Read on to learn more about what to expect from this brilliantly dynamic theatrical workout for the brain… It’s impossible not to be infected by Stoppard’s sheer love of thinking.

Book Arcadia tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

What is Arcadia about?

Arcadia is a play that comprises two separate timelines. In 1809, precocious teenager Thomasina Coverly, the daughter of a wealthy family, is learning about physics, mathematics, and natural sciences with her tutor Septimus Hodge. In the same house in the present day (the 1990s), writer Hannah Jarvis is researching a hermit who lived on the grounds in the nineteenth century, and scholar Benedict Nightingale is investigating a hitherto unknown incident in the life of Lord Byron.

The play explores themes of binaries, including Romanticism and Classicism, intuition and logic, and thought and feeling. It might sound a bit specialist and it is challenging, but don’t be alarmed! It’s often considered to be Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece.

Who wrote Arcadia?

Arcadia is by the late Tom Stoppard. Born to a Jewish family in Czechoslovakia in 1937, Stoppard’s family fled to Singapore and then India, before settling in Britain in 1946. His most celebrated works include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Jumpers, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Leopoldstadt. He won three Oliviers and five Tonys for his plays. His screenwriting credits include Empire of the Sun, Anna Karenina, and Shakespeare in Love (for which he won an Oscar). Stoppard was knighted in 1997 and received the Order of Merit in 2000. Stoppard died in November 2025 at the age of 88.

When was Arcadia first performed?

Arcadia was first performed in 1993 at the National Theatre, directed by Trevor Nunn. The cast included Felicity Kendal, Rufus Sewell, Bill Nighy, Emma Fielding, and Harriet Walter. It transferred to the West End the following year and to Broadway in 1995. The Broadway cast featured Billy Crudup, Blair Brown, Victor Garber, and Robert Sean Leonard.

The play was revived in the West End in 2009 with a cast that included Dan Stevens, Samantha Bond, and Ed Stoppard, and on Broadway in 2011 (in which Billy Crudup, who played Septimus in the original Broadway production, portrayed Bernard).

What awards has Arcadia won?

The original production of Arcadia won the Olivier Award for Best New Play and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play.

This current revival directed by Carrie Cracknell was nominated for Best Revival of a Play and Best Supporting Actress in a Play (Isis Hainsworth) in the 2026 Olivier Awards.

Where is Arcadia being performed?

Arcadia is being performed at the Duke of York’s Theatre on St Martin’s Lane. This playhouse seats approximately 650 audience members and recent productions have included Stereophonic, Woman in Mind, and Teeth ‘n’ Smiles.

When is Arcadia being performed?

Arcadia is being performed from 20 June to 12 September 2026. Performances take place Monday to Saturday at 7pm, with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 1:30pm (note the early start times).

How long is Arcadia?

Arcadia is 2 hours, 50 minutes long.

Who is in the Arcadia cast?

Isis Hainsworth reprises her Olivier-nominated role as Thomasina Coverly. Also revisiting their roles from the Old Vic are Angus Cooper as Valentine Coverly, Seamus Dillane as Septimus Hodge, Tim Frances as Jellaby, Holly Godliman as Chloë Coverly, and Matthew Steer as Ezra Chater.

New to the production are Nikki Amuka-Bird as Hannah Jarvis, Oliver Chris as Bernard Nightingale, Aaron Anthony as Richard Noakes, David Buttle as Captain Brice, Matthew Doswell as Gus Coverly / Augustus Coverly, and Yolanda Kettle as Lady Croom. Alex Britt, Peta Cornish, and Keziah Hayes serve as understudies.

Who is in the Arcadia creative team?

Arcadia is directed by Carrie Cracknell. With Natalie Abrahami, Cracknell served as co-artistic director of the Gate Theatre for five years. Her production of Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck was nominated for an Olivier Award. She has directed A Doll’s House, Electra, and Macbeth at the Young Vic, and Medea, The Deep Blue Sea, and Julie at the National Theatre. On screen, she directed the 2022 Netflix version of Persuasion.

The creative team also includes Alex Eales (set design), Suzanne Cave (costume design), Guy Hoare (lighting), Donato Wharton (sound), Ira Mandela Siobhan (movement), and Stuart Earl (composer).

Who are the characters in Arcadia?

Arcadia features two sets of characters in two separate eras:

1809:

Thomasina Coverly: a brilliant 13-year-old scholar and the daughter of Lord and Lady Croom of Sidley Park. Septimus Hodge: her tutor, and friend of the notorious Lord Byron (an unseen guest at the house). Ezra Chater: a terrible poet and guest at Sidley Park. Lady Croom: Thomasina’s flirtatious mother Augustus Coverly: Thomasina’s mischievous younger brother. Captain Brice: Lady Croom’s brother. Jellaby: the butler. Richard Noakes: the gardener, developing an Arcadia-like landscape.

Present day:

Hannah Jarvis: a biographer researching the hermit of Sidley Park. Bernard Nightingale: an English Literature professor at the University of Sussex. Valentine Coverly: a postgraduate mathematics student who is in love with Hannah. Chloe Coverly: Valentine’s 18-year-old sister who has her own ideas about the universe. Gus Coverly: their younger brother, who has been mute from an early age (he and Thomasina's brother Augustus are the only roles that are played by the same actor).

What are some fun facts about Arcadia?

• The character of Thomasina Coverly is inspired by Ada Lovelace, the daughter of the poet and celebrity Lord Byron (an unseen presence in the play). Lovelace was a mathematician and inventor who, with Charles Babbage, created a prototype for the first computer.
• The idea of the “garden hermit” or “ornamental hermit” was very fashionable in the Romantic era (late 18th/early 19th century) in order to create an atmosphere of reflection and wisdom. Professional hermits would usually receive a small stipend in addition to a space to live and their board. It really sounds like quite an appealing job!
• In 2006, Arcadia was included on the shortlist for the Royal Institution Award for "the best science book ever written" (the winner was another work of fiction, Primo Levi’s short story collection The Periodic Table).
• After Stoppard’s death, the surgical oncologist Michael Baum wrote a letter to The Times explaining how the play influenced his research into chemotherapy for breast cancer: “Thomasina asks her tutor, Septimus: ‘If there is an equation for a curve like a bell, there must be an equation for one like a bluebell, and if a bluebell, why not a rose?’ With that Stoppard explains chaos theory, which better explains the behaviour of breast cancer. At the point of diagnosis, the cancer must have already scattered cancer cells into the circulation that nest latent in distant organs. The consequence of that hypothesis was the birth of ‘adjuvant systemic chemotherapy’, and rapidly we saw a striking fall of the curve that illustrated patients' survival. Stoppard never learnt how many lives he saved by writing Arcadia.”

Book Arcadia tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Photo credit: Arcadia at The Old Vic. (Courtesy of production)