Arcadia

Description:

Arcadia moves back and forth between 1809 and the present at the elegant estate owned by the Coverly family. The 1809 scenes reveal a household in transition. As the Arcadian landscape is being transformed into picturesque Gothic gardens, complete with a hermitage, thirteen year-old Lady Thomasina and her tutor delve into intellectual and romantic issues. Present day scenes depict the Coverly descendants and two competing scholars who are researching a possible scandal at the estate in 1809 involving Lord Byron. This brilliant play moves smoothly between the centuries and explores the nature of truth and time, the difference between classical and romantic temperaments, and the disruptive influence of sex on our life orbits- the attraction Newton left out.

subjects: English drama,  English Plays,  open_syllabus_project,  Long Now Manual for Civilization,  British and irish drama (dramatic works by one author),  English drama (Comedy),  Mathematics,  Philosophy,  Plays,  Drama,  Fiction,  Classics,  Theatre,  Historical Fiction,  School,  Literature,  British Literature,  Playscript,  Gardens in literature

People: Thomasina Coverly,  Septimus Hodge,  Hannah Jarvis,  Bernard Nightingale,  Valentine Coverly

Places: Derbyshire (England)

Times: 20th century