The parts of this I loved, I really loved, but. Fuck this was frustrating to read, because so much of this play is men being Very Wrong and ignoring the women around them being correct. ( )

I feel one must be in the mood
for moonlight and music and infinitude
to really enjoy this play.
But what do I know?

Entropically ironical,
chaotic and clever and Byronical,
and jolly and gay:
et in arcadia ego. ( )

This play is pleasant enough, but basically its about how clever mister Tom Stoppard is rather than actually saying anything profound or interesting about human lives. ( )

Arcadia is a tremendous play, and I'm sorry I've never seen it. I find reading plays difficult. My visual imagination is not vivid, and I'm unpracticed in reading between lines of dialogue to understand the emotions behind them and their possible effects on other characters. I had to read some of the scenes several times, and tried not to progress until I felt I had a good handle on what the previous scene was about. It took me several days to read.

I sought it out because Stoppard strikes me as the smartest and most serious playwright of my lifetime, even though parts of almost every one of his plays are laugh-out-loud funny. He seems to share my melancholic's understanding that the only way to face the tragedy that is human life is to embrace it with verve, braggadocio, and mockery. I think Lord Byron, who hovers around the edges of Arcadia while never making an appearance, understood this too. The first act of this play is positively hilarious, and there's a good deal of wit about the middle, too. When things wrap up (the audience realizing of course), it packs a real emotional punch. It's sad, but in a way that makes you realize you wouldn't have missed it for anything — much like life itself. ( )

Hermit, tortoise, tutor japes, a grand house, haughtiness, precociousness, chutzpah, caprice. The inventiveness, the dazzling compression of ideas and humour are all there. It’s easy to discount these now because Stoppard’s style is so familiar and consistent (and critics naturally yearn to say something new) but reading his works shows just why he’s in the canon. What impresses is not just the wealth of ideas and characters, but also the lack of any easy resolution. No single sound bite or “thought bite” wins out. So, although a slim volume of a play that obviously can be viewed in a single staging, a close reading of this text is well worthwhile. ( )