CYGNET’S “ARCADIA”, ANOTHER GO AROUND FOR MURRAY.

 Long Before Tom Stoppard wrote “The Coast of Utopia”, his epic trilogy of the 19th revolution in Russia which garnered seven Tony’s this year including one for himself and one for The Old Globe’s Jack O’Brien, he wrote “Arcadia” which won the Oliver Award for Best Play in 1994. In 1968, he was first introduced to American audience with  his Tony award winning play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.”

No one can deny that Tom Stoppard has a way with words, nor can they deny that artistic director Sean Murray has added a new dimension to the already success at his new home at The Joan Theatre in Liberty Station.

Artistic director, Murray, who has directed this  current show at The Joan, in the Dottie Studio, has directed this show in the past with a very different and less mature cast. None-the -less, “Arcadia”, now on stage through Aug. 9th. still tells the same tale.

Marti Gobel and Richard Baird

The story is about two sets of characters in the same upper class setting, separated by two centuries yet connected by the same issues as sex, art, the environment and mathematics.

The action takes place in a large room with a long table as the centerpiece on the Coverly Estate which serves as a classroom for young and gifted Thomasina Coverly (a beautiful and very young Harper Haden) and her tutor Septimus Hodge (Corydon Melgoza, smooth and irresistible), Septimus has no idea how much turmoil she will throw into his world. 

Harper Haden and Corydon Melgoza

Thomasina is not only bright, impetuous and full of surprises for her rather prudish tutor, she is also a romantic in an age where romantics are scorned  and bright young girls were to be seen and not heard. 

But Stoppard, in his inimitable way, while writing on an intellectual level, (moral philosophy, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, laws of chaos, Newton’s law of motion)  aims for the heart with Thomasina asking  Septimus for a definition of carnal embrace. Stunned to bumbling, he explains that it is “like the practice of throwing one’s arms around a side of beef”. 

Marti Gobel and Tanner Vydos

In her studies, when not romanticizing and coming to grips with her own sexuality, Thomasina has come across Newton’s Law of motion when she discovers it odd that when one stirs jam in rice pudding it will not come together again if they swirl it in the other direction. From there she goes on to say that if one could stop every atom in motion, one could write a formula for the future. 

With a few changes of props, it becomes a meeting place, two hundred years later, for Hanna Jarvis (a  convincing Marti Gobel) who is writing a book about Lord Byron’s mistress and is now researching a book on the estate. She is also a  horticulture enthusiast. 

Fred Harlow, Harper Haden and Corydon Melgoza

Lady Croon (Melanie Lora) a houseguest of the Coverly’s, another scholar who wants to restore the decline of the garden complains to Noaks  the gardener ( a bumbling Manny Fernandes). 

Valentine Coverly, (Tanner Vydos) the now owner of the property, understands that Thomasina was on the right track from reading her diaries, portfolios and letters left behind by the young girl. He finds the books filled with equations that feed solutions from one equation to the next. He can’t understand how she knew this because this process  had only been practiced during the past twenty years. But he knew she was right. 

Barnard Nightingale (a powerhouse and  flamboyant Richard Baird) is seeking information about Byron for a paper he is presenting. Characters float in and out showing off the chicanery and cover-ups of the Coverly family, which neatly blend into the findings of the researchers later on. 

Baird at his prime, never missing a Stoppard beat as his booming voice could clear a crowded room.  Ms. Haden was simply charming (but distinctively difficult to understand with her soft voice and heavy British accent) as the young Thomasina who inquisitively and through a series deductions and mathematical configurations spouts theories that had yet to be discovered. Jarvis  is a perfect foil for Baird as the two compete along different lines for information about the earlier goings on of  Byron.

Melanie Lora and Harper Had

Filled with deep philosophical debate of ‘what ifs’, Stoppard finally shifts back to the early 19th century where  Thomasina and Septimus dance to the music (a waltz)  heard outside the house. She is now 16. He kisses her on  the mouth and sends her off to bed. Segue to now, Gus (Zev Lerner) gives Hanna a drawing  of Septimus, the Hermit she has been researching, and they too, dance to the waltz. 

Following the goings and comings of the good folks at Sidley Park is something like trying to follow the second law of thermodynamics a century before it was discovered (heat cannot pass from a colder body to a warmer body only from a warmer body to a colder body.) It’s like watching a stream of water breaking off into two tributaries and ending up in the same place after taking different paths. It’s a fine mind game while entertaining. Both play periods are loaded with social and sexual intrigue, thanks to both Stoppard and Murray and his fine cast. 

Remaining cast members include: Fred Harlow, Byron LaDue, and Paul Morgovo.

Credit Chris Rynne for lighting, Heather Larson for the scenic design, Elisa Benzoni for the period costumes and then some, George Ye for sound, Peter Hermann for the period wigs and makeup, Bonnie Durben for props including the Turtle, Vanessa Dinning is dialogue consultant and Mars  Larson as stage manager. 

Corydon Melgoza and Melanie Lora

Stoppard’s “Arcadia” is a philosophical exercise using art, sex, mathematics and the environment to create a thinking comedy. Having seen it three times, my opinion has not changed much about the play.  I think it’s rather pompous and self -serving. Interesting only in the fact that some of Byron’s poetry was quoted and Richard Baird rocked the house down, but other than that, I’ll pass on a third time. 

See you at the theatre.

Enjoy at your leisure. 

The play runs over two hours with one 18 min. intermission. 

When:  Runs through Aug. 9. 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: Cygnet Theatre at The Joan, 2880 Roosevelt Road, Arts District Liberty Station, San Diego

Tickets: $32.50 and up

Photo: Karli Cadel

Phone: 619-337-1525

Online: cygnettheatre.com