Review Roundup: Bedlam's ARCADIA

The critically acclaimed New York Theatre Company BEDLAM just celebrated opeing night of Tom Stoppard's ARCADIA, which runs at the West End Theater (263 W 86th Street) through December 10th, 2023.

ARCADIA stars BEDLAM company members Alan Altschuler, Lisa Birnbaum, Shaun Taylor Corbett, Caroline Grogan, Deychen Volino-Gyetsa, Mike Labbadia, Arash Mokhtar, Randolph Curtis Rand, Jamie “Smitty” Smithson, Zuzanna Szadkowski, Devin Vega and Elan Zafir.

Tom Stoppard's absorbing play takes us back and forth between the centuries and explores the nature of truth and time, the difference between the Classical and the Romantic temperament, and the disruptive influence of sex on our orbits in life - 'the attraction which Newton left out'.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

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Regina Robbins, TimeOut: Arcadia runs three hours but never overstays its welcome. Stoppard and Bedlam repay the audience’s investment of patience and attention with ample dividends: a profound exploration of the human condition augmented with playful comedy, poignant romance and bitter irony. When Thomasina laments the poetry and drama that went up in smoke when the Library of Alexandria was torched by the Romans, Septimus reassures her: “What we let fall will be picked up by those behind,” he says. “The missing plays of Sophocles will turn up piece by piece, or be written again in another language.” It’s a comforting notion, and may even be true; all the same, let’s hope that Stoppard’s work never goes missing for long.

David Finkle, New York Stage Review:  Which brings us in due time to director and Bedlam artistic director Eric Tucker’s take on Arcadia, a play frequently considered the best of the last 50 years. This time the  masterpiece doesn’t exactly have that effect. Giving the script a spin – as Tucker regularly likes to do – he comes up with notions that might even have audiences questioning the play and its exalted reputation. The director’s most striking approach to the difference between the early 1800s and the late 1900s is that the earlier inhabitants often give themselves over to yelling at each other more than the several-generations-later folks do, Thomasina and Septimus the 1809-12 exceptions. The off-putting histrionics overshadow Stoppard’s intellectual points.

Photo Credit: Ashley Garrett

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