By Anita Raymon
There is an intimate 99-seat theater on the lower level of Theatre in the Park, where The Outrageous fortune company presents cerebral and eclectic plays such as Tom Stoppard's idea-laden play, “Arcadia.”
Tom Stoppard is one of the outstanding playwrights of the 21st Century. He uses material from ancient times, mathematics, and mystery. His ideas are not easy to follow; there is far too much dialogue, but the sweep of his ideas carry the audience on a ride through history to explore how human relationships were and are formed.
The play takes place both in the early 19th century as well as switching back and forth to modern times. These changes still keep the actions of the play and even overlap in some cases.
Producer Ronald Hellman believes that audiences should be exposed to new ideas and think about dilemmas, which have existed from the ancient world to the present day. In this Tom Stoppard play, we have several themes: one gets a little dizzy at the challenge of receiving torrents of information, yet there is method to the madness. You just have to think carefully and listen closely to what is being presented on stage.
There was an ensemble of 12 players, whose English accents were impeccable, with great presence and acting ability.
Linda May as Lady Croom makes her third appearance with the Company. She has appeared in various community and musical productions over the past few years. She has an upright bearing, suitable for the Lady of the Grand House, and gardens, of Sidley Park in Derbyshire, England in 1809. She is a forceful character and one to be reckoned with.
Her daughter, Thomasina Crowley, is a lively 13-year-old with an analytical mind, a curiosity beyond her years and a thirst for knowledge of the world beyond Derbyshire. Darcy Miller plays Thomasina to perfection. She is a sprite, who wants to live and become grown-up immediately. She has a huge crush on her formal tutor, Septimus Hodge, who has to keep on his toes answering her questions about love and life.
Gregory Thomas Angelo plays Hodge with a sure hand, the upright bearing of a gentleman, who is not adverse to a little seduction of married ladies. He is also gifted in languages, reads and criticizes poetry, especially Lord Byron. There is a mystery about Lord Byron being a visitor at Sidley Park, prior to his rather hurried departure on a ship for Falmouth to two years exile abroad. Is it possible that he had been involved in a duel, whose outcome we do not know, but the facts are taken up by present day investigators searching for clues.
The investigators make some important discoveries, and the audience is educated in the mores of early 1800s morality as well as to how “satisfaction” was obtained.
It is already apparent that there are many strands to this play. These included Anthony Leone, a butler extraordinaire; sprightly, Chloe Coverly, Nicola Riske, and Michelle Oplinger, Hanna Jervis, a worthy adversary of Bernard Nightingale played by Denis Murphy, both sleuths try to understand the happenings, in the past at Sidley hall.
Hellman wishes his audience to have a wonderful theater experience. “If the characters and story interest us, and the human relationships move us,” he writes, “then we have a play that is interesting, talked and thought about.”
Director Jim Azelvandre made sense of Arcadia for a rapt audience. His acting credits include “How I Learned to Drive” and “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” with the Outrageous Fortune Players, and directing” The Nerd,” “Amadeus” and “Buried Child”. He had a superior of actors to work with and an excellent stage manager in Lydia Scotti.
Remaining performances of this provocative play are on March 9, 10, and 11 at the Queens Theatre in the Park, on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinee at 3 p.m. For directions and information on the shuttle from Shea Stadium to the Theatre, call 428-2500 or e-mail outrageousfortune @RBHOFC.com
Reach Qguide writer Anita Raymon by e-mail at timesledgr@aol.com, or call 229-0300, Ext. 139.
