Tom Dewey and Jager Weatherby -Photo by Michael Bury
The Driftwood Players of Edmonds produce Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. Directed by Cory Daniels. Runs through February 21, Thursday-Saturday 8 PM, Sunday 2 PM.
Spanning nearly two centuries, Arcadia is on of Tom Stoppard's best beloved plays. It won the 1994 Laurence Olivier Award for best new play, and was nominated for a Tony as well, losing to Love!Valour!Compassion!.
Driftwood's production is a sweet, humorous, well-acted community theatre production of this beautifully written script. It jumps centuries, beginning in Georgian England at Sidley Park, where Septimus Hodge, tutor to the brilliant Thomasina Coverley, fends off a duel with a cuckolded gentlemen, who dismisses defending his wife's honor in favor receiving a positve review of his newest poetry selection. When we fastforward to the 21st century, we are in the same room of Sidley Park, but now its overrun with a modern day family and researchers trying to discover the truth about the people who lived there almost 200 years ago.
Though Arcadia is deeply philosophical in nature, it maintains a sense of wit and humor. The characters are all interesting, each with a quirk and a brilliant side. Thomasina, played beautifully by Jager Weatherby, is trying to find the mathematical expression of all things natural. Tom Dewey as Septimus Hodge, is her tutor, who seems intent on loving the wrong woman. Erica Bergman as Hannah Jarvis and Justin Tinsley as Bernard Nightingale go head to head in an effort to best the other in some startling literary discovery, as Jeremy Thompson (Valentine Coverly) quietly fights his own inner battle with the mathematics of biology.
Arcadia continues Stoppard's tradition of brilliant play writing, and Driftwood has done a beautiful job of mounting this ambitious production.
For more info: Find out about Student Night. For tickets to Arcadia call 425-774-9600 or visit the website.
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