Early this summer, James Fennemore produced Oxford University Dramatic Society’s national tour, an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. It received four stars in Cherwell – his next project, directing Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, promises to be equally impressive. The ‘Milk & Two Sugars’ production company is three weeks into rehearsals and the scenes prepared were already slick and full of character.
The cast got into character by hot seating – one actor sits in front of the others and replies to their quick-fire questions in role. “What’s the best sex you’ve ever had?” is thrown at them alongside, “what did you eat for lunch?” The spontaneous and amusing responses bode well for the performance and it’s obvious the cast have an easy affinity.
This comes across in body language on stage, especially between David Shields as Septimus Hodge and Nick Williams as Ezra Chater: David comically darts around Nick as he tries to persuade him into forgiveness after sleeping with Mrs Chater. In terms of physicality, both actors draw laughs with their facial expressions too. Nick’s look of pompous rage is juxtaposed with David’s snakey wide-eyed ego-stroking and the tension onstage is very funny.
In fact, several of the onstage pairings work notably well. Amelia Sparling plays Thomasina Coverly exactly as you’d imagine a young and spoilt but extremely bright young girl. She switches between surly and cutesy with a precocious charm, a technique which clearly both attracts and aggravates Septimus. Their relationship is conventionally teacher-pupil in some respects: Thomasina asks if God is a Newtonian, to which her tutor replies, “An Etonian? Almost certainly, I’m afraid”. Yet her continuous challenging of him and Amelia’s haughty tone of voice gives her gravity on stage to match his; this scene is particularly compelling.
Arcadia is a comedy but it is not light, and I have seen performances where the subtler and wordier scenes are bulldozed through without much thought to their import. This cast doesn’t make that mistake. The concept of an iterated algorithm is untangled at a pace that the whole audience should be able to follow. Peter Huhne played Valentine Coverly as a sneery but sweethearted and perhaps slightly misanthropic mathematician; a mix which is ultimately endearing.
Each character is appealing and convincing in their own right. However, it is the interaction between them that makes this production seem particularly exciting. This production is not to be missed.
Arcadia is on from the 16th-19th October at the Playhouse. Student tickets cost £10 and can be bought here
