Zach Crowley as Septimus Hodge, Sarah Vargo as Thomasina Coverly and Ellie Jameson as Lady Croom in Arcadia. - Photo: Mark Lyons
Sir Tom Stoppard (he was
knighted in 1997) might be our greatest living playwright. He’s still cranking
out plays at the age of 75, but his acknowledged masterpiece is probably Arcadia, which is being staged by the
drama program at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music this weekend. The witty
play from 1993 veers back and forth between interconnected events in the early
19th century and the present in the same country house in rural England. Two
modern scholars in the present spar and speculate about events that happened in
1809. It’s a fascinating and complicated exploration of the relationships
between past and present, knowledge and passion, science and poetry. Drama
professor Diane Kvapil directs a student cast who play poets, scholars,
nobility, servants and a very precocious teenage girl and her tutor. Through Sunday.
Patricia Corbett Theater, University of Cincinnati. $27-$29. 513-556-4183.
