Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece gets a stellar, lust-filled revival
8 / 10
Stoppard shows us the power of learning so clearly here, in passionate, ahead-of-their-time speeches on algorithms or the nature of time. But he also shows us all the things that hold us back from it: lust, arrogance, and the sheer randomness of fate. Spending an evening at Arcadia is sometimes like being educated by a brilliant, modestly conservative lecturer who uses the hot sauce of sex to get us eating up material that could be stodgy in other hands. Then, gradually, this play starts to feel as well as think, building to a heartbreaking ending that shows how easily passion and knowledge can burn away to nothing.
