THE PLAY PRODUCED

ARCADIA by Tom Stoppard

Produced by the Wick Theatre Company at The Barn, Southwick

INTRODUCTION

The Wick Theatre Company was fOlmded back in 1948. Its regular performance base is the Barn Theatre in Southwick, ,)n old fishing village now wedged between Brighton and Worthing on the Sussex coast.

The Barn is part of an historic farmstead, now a thriving community centre, and it has been producing amateur drama and music events since 1951. Thanks to a successful National Lottery bid, some £390,000 of work has recently been carried out to improve the theatre and provide new facilities for se t-building, storage and rehearsal. The Barn reopened in 1998 and Wick has resumed its programme of four major productions per year - a b,)lanced diet of classic drama, light comedy and the occasional musical. And this programme will soon be augmented by smaller-scale productions in the new studio theatre area now available in the Barn.

. THE PLAY

Arcadia was only released for amateur performance in 1999, so the company was very interested in being one of the first in the country to tackle it. The timing also meant that our production could be presented as part of the prestigious theatre festival organised by the Brighton and Have Arts Council during the autumn. And the choice of Arcadia fitted well with our general approach of including at least one "heavyweight" drama in the annual programme. For exa mple, recent years have featured three Shakespeare plays as well as Les Liaisons Dangereuses, A Do/l's House, A Mall for All Seasolls and Tom Stoppard's Travesties. Even so, it was clear that Arcadia was going to be exceptionally challenging.

Almost as soon as it appeared in 1993, Arcadia acquired a special academic status, shooting into the pop charts of English and Drama syllabuses around the world. The text is complex and deals with an extraordinary range of ideas and "movements" - the science of crea tion and the chaos of the natural world, the order of classicism and the inspired disorder of romanticism - just to be going on with. Fortunately, all this clever stuff is presented in perfect theatrical form, through great

fascinating story line - or two related story lines, as the events of the past and the present continuaUy intertwine. On top of that there is the sheer dexterity of the language and the comedy which Tom Stoppard uses to create both high entertainment and serious emotion.

We tried to capture all these flavours in the motif running

programme material for our production - the plan of a large, classical garden maze.

The plot shuttles backwards and forwards in time. In 1809, in an English stately home, Lady Croom's c.lassical gardens are being turned into a gothic chaos by the fashionable landscape architect, "Culpability" Noakes. In a garden room overlooking the works we

Thomasina, studying with the resident tutor, Septimus Hodge. (He is an old school-friend of Lord Byron, himself a guest at the house, but rather more dashing and accomplished than Byron.) They are repea tedly interrupted by, among others, the barmy Countess herself and poor Ezra Chater, a terrible minor poet, determined to fight a duel with the man who has snatched his wife's honour in the gazebo. In the same room, 190 years later, a quirky collection of modern characters try to unravel the mysterious events of 1809. Who, if anyone, killed the cuckolded Chater? And who was the pitiful madman, suspected of genius, who lived on in the park as a hermit?

We see the present-day expe rts generally making a hash of interpreting what actually happened , and what it really meant. But by the long final scene the characters from the two time zones are sharing the same s tage space, moving to a spooky climax where the modern characters begin to understand the truth about the past, while the historic characters are gaping into the bleak eternity of the future.

The obvious risk in producing Arcadia is in taking on a serious challenge without the depth of skills to carry it off. Even a "pretty good" production of it risks being stodgy - "worthy", deep, heavy ­and quite impenetrable to an audience. Clearly the choice of director is crucial. We went for someone with an impressive track record in taking on tough, "quality" plays and achieving results which audiences find accessible and enjoyable. He was quite confident from the outset that, with intelligent acting and clear visual presentation, the highly complex picture of Arcadia can come across as natural and straightforward ­challenging to an audience, but rewardin as well.

CASTING &: REHEARSAL -----~...,..---.....

Arcadia certainly demands a high standard of acting skills from the cast of eight men and four women. Most of the parts are substantial, needing actors who can understand and convey complicated thoughts and situations through speech and character. The play calls for strong ensemble work as well, so it is particularly unforgiving of any weaker performances. We were

characters caught up in a through the publicity and find her brilliant young daughter, fortunately able to fiJI the 10 adult

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THE PLAY PRODUCED parts using members who had all adjustments between scenes, under pldyed major roles in other recent low light, without holding up the prod uctions. A further two parts, action. i r teenagers, were harder to fill, at

COSTUMEleast initially. However, sixth­formers at local schools and Nine of the characters needcolleges ",ere invited to audition Regency costume, and at least three and we were able to cast two very of those need a full change oftalented young people to play costume. On top of that, some ofThomasina (a challenging acting the "modern" chMacters put onrole, for a charilcter who is aged 12, Regency "fancy dress" for an off­and later 16) and Gus (an important stage party towards the end of the "double", aged 15, who appears in play. For the most part we did notboth the old ilnd new time zones). have suitable historic costumes in Rehearsals took place over 11 our own wardrobe stock, so we weeks, with an ilverage of four used the excellent costume hire "official" sessions per week. The service run by the RSC in Stra tford, way the play is split between the which is great va lue for money. past and the present helped greatly The characters wearing modern with the organisation and focus of dress are decidedly well-heeled, so rehearsals during the early week . for them we rifled the wardrobes of

SET-- -- -, the more fashion-conscious members of the company!

Arcadia calls for a stage set conveying simple grandeur - a bare and spacious room in i1 stiltely The lighting of Arcadia is not home, opening onto an unseen particularly complex, in terms of landscape. Our solution was to the number of states needed, but have a half-round cupola upstage, each state needs to be carefully suggesting more depth ilnd thought-out, rigged and mixed. window area than could actually be We therefore took a good dea I of seen. The room was slanted, with care to establish the right quality ofonly two walls shown, and the "interior daylight" for 1809 and forthird empty to blackness. The stage the present day, and a strongtloor (pale wood) was "reversed atmosphere for the other two mainout" at the edges with blac.k, states, moonlight and dawn. Aemphasising the irregular angles of couple of "night specials" arethe room. The doorways were needed - the effect of a distantstrongly worked up in relie f, but party, beyund the windows, andthe walls were kept to "plaster" the appearance of oil lamps andpanels, achieved through paint candles in the room. effect a.nd designed to come alive under different lighting states. As The predominant sound source in always, producing an elegant but the action is a piano in an offstage apparently simple effect actually room (for which we used involved a great deal of skilled recordings). We built on this sound work from our set-building and texture by also using keyboard painting teams! music, from Bach's Two-Part

Inventions, in the brief overlaps concerned about are our audience' the company and beingFURNITURE lit PROPS between scenes. This was intended There's no doubt that Arcadia "commercially" successful as well.

tu underscore the feeling of the two makes a lot of demands on However, it is not a choice to be Furniture requirements are not

time worlds in the play - two audiences - not because of any taken lightly. A successfullarge, though the main items - a

elegant lines which at first seem controversial subject ma tter or production really does depend on3ubstantial table and a minimum of

quite distinct, but whkh, as they shock tactics, but because of the being able to assemble excellent three chairs - need to be quality

unfold , are intricately linked one to depth and detail of its intellectual directing, acting and technicalp ieces. By contrast, the props

the other. More taxing for our content. It asks people to skills, and - because of the play'srequirements are enormous and

sound engineer were t1NO extended concentrate exceptionally hard, to com plexity - to prepare the groundinvolve making or adapting certain special effects - a distant 1809 absorb both lofty ideas and tiny very thoroughly indeed, longitems which appear both in the past

pumping engine and a distant clues, to make COIUlectiOns, draw before rehearsals even begin.and (suitably aged) in the present.

modern disco beat - which play parallels and exercise imagination. Two items are particularly difficult

under some of the stage action. Tom Stoppard certainly helps you- a dead rabbit and an apparently

Like the rest of the sound cues, out, by providing plenty ofJi ve tortoise. We hired both items these were mixed on computer and opportunities for entertainmentfrom the Royal National Theatre,

recorded onto CD, for easier and enjoyment on the way, in whatw hich had pensioned them off after operation in the theatre. is physically a long evening in the:he origin,)1 production. The antics thea tre (getting on for three hours,

f arad io-con trolled tortoise need CONCLUSION . with one interval) . But a key test is ~reful rehearsal, by the way, to whether people feel they reallya\'(lid the risk of upstaging less One of the most satisfying things

have endured a long evening! In...,echanical actors' we found about producing Arcadia

the event, we were very pleasedwas the extra challenge it presented"'portantly, much of the plot is that our audiences (four nights ofto just about every department of',ld " through the props - what good houses) seemed drawn intothe company. This is an important

ppens to them and how the the play, at several levels, and thatbenefit for an amateur group,Dlaracters refer to them - so we they felt rewarded by thewhere volunteer members are

k a lot of care to make them experience.essentially deriving their own·wincing. The placing and satisfaction through tackling and As a choice of production,\ em ent of the props and carrying off interesting work. therefore, Arcadia has certainly

also needed careful ranked as a success for us,nning, to allow swift But the other "volunteers" who

enhancing the artistic reputation ofWick Theatre Company are always,,.,, TEL: 020-7837-5655 FAX: 020-7833·0609

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