Arcadia West End Tickets, News, Info & More
Old Vic Theatre
The Cut, South Bank London
ARCADIA is set in April 1809 in a stately home in Derbyshire. Thomasina, a gifted pupil, proposes a startling theory, beyond her comprehension. All around her, the adults, including her tutor Septimus, are preoccupied with secret desires, illicit passions and professional rivalries. Two hundred years later, academic adversaries Hannah and Bernard are piecing together puzzling clues, curiously recalling those events of 1809, in their quest for an increasingly elusive truth.
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR Arcadia
A fitting tribute to Tom Stoppard's genius
10 / 10
Alex Eales’s revolving, circular set deftly illustrates the idea that time cannot be unwound, or jam unstirred from rice pudding, and features two glowing ellipses and a host of celestial spheres above. Cracknell’s production is almost seamless and she has assembled probably the finest cast you’ll see on stage this year. Dillane is a saturnine and amused Septimus, while Hainsworth utterly convinces as a prodigy aged 13 and then 17. (The flirtation between the two could be deeply icky in this Epstein-filed era, but manifests as a chaste, and rebuffed, teenage crush.) Puwanarajah is resplendent as the swaggeringly cocksure, grizzle-maned Nightingale, whose opportunistic priapism – also somewhat jarring in a post #MeToo world - mirrors Septimus’s.
The past sparkles but present flags
6 / 10
It’s when the piece shifts to the present day, and the self-important academic Bernard Nightingale (Prasanna Puwanarajah) takes centre-stage that the pace begins to flag. The dominant yet unseen figure throughout the evening is that of Lord Byron, whose visit to Sidley prompts all sorts of speculation and theorizing. Continually misreading the fragments of evidence, Nightingale builds a house of cards.
Category
by Aliya Al-Hassan - February 5, 2026
Arcadia is set in April 1809 in a stately home in Derbyshire. Thomasina, a gifted pupil, proposes a startling theory, beyond her comprehension. All around her, the adults, including her tutor Septimus, are preoccupied with secret desires, illicit passions and professional rivalries. Two hundred years later, academic adversaries Hannah and Bernard are piecing together puzzling clues, curiously recalling those events of 1809, in their quest for an increasingly elusive truth.
by Aliya Al-Hassan - February 5, 2026
Of all Tom Stoppard's work, Arcadia has always stood out. Touching on sex, Fermat's last theorum, the second law of thermodynamics, landscape gardening with a detective story thrown in, it is a mixture of subjects that few playwrights could attempt to combine. Does it matter if you don't understand the complex scientific and mathematical theories? Not at all. Carrie Cracknell's magnificent revival has huge amounts of humour and heart, which is not always a given with Stoppard's work.
by Kat Mokrynski - February 3, 2026
Recently, we had the chance to speak with Seamus Dillane, who plays the role of Septimus Hodge in Arcadia. We discussed what made him want to be a part of the production, what interests him about his character and even what it has been like working with a play where the cast is divided between two timelines!
by Stephi Wild - December 22, 2025
All new photos have been released from rehearsals for Sir Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia at The Old Vic. Arcadia plays at The Old Vic from 24 Jan-21 Mar 2026. Check out the photos here!
by Stephi Wild - October 29, 2025
Tom Stoppard's Arcadia is being revived at the Old Vic next year. The show marks the next production in Matthew Warchus’ final season as artistic director of the theatre.
Arcadia History
Other Productions of Arcadia
| 1995 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 2011 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 2026 | West End |
West End |
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