Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
Directed by David Benedictus
Original music composed by Jeremy sands
BBC Radio 3 1993
Summary[]
ARCADIA is Stoppard's acknowledged masterpiece, a scintillating play in which - as in IN THE NATIVE STATE - present day researchers seek to find the truth about people and events from a former time - in this case, about 200 years earlier.
It was broadcast by Radio 3 in the year of its first performance at the National theatre, 1993. The action displays both past and present, opening in 1808 before switching to the 1990s. The listener learns the truth of both eras, but, predictably, the modern researchers construct a false picture of the past, which gathers sufficient momentum to displace the true one. Most of the characters are exceptionally intelligent and erudite and their dialogue matches - indeed, defines - their intellectual stature.
David Benedictus' production has the same cast as that of the National's staging:
Cast[]
- Felicity Kendal.......... Hannah Jarvis
- Bill Nighy............... Bernard Nightingale
- Samuel West.............. Valentine Coverly
- Rufus Sewell............. Septimus Hodge
- Emma Fielding............ Thomasina Coverly
- Harriet Walter........... Lady Croom
- Harriet Harrison......... Cloe Coverly
- Timothy Matthews......... Gus/Augustus Coverly
- Derek Hutchinson......... Chater
- Sidney Livingstone....... Richard Noakes
- Graham Sinclair.......... Captain Brice
- Alan Mitchell............ Jellaby, the butler
Critical Reception[]
References[]
Details from recording of broadcast