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Theater: Heights Players Go All in on Tom Stoppard with ‘Arcadia’ in Brooklyn

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Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia is a heady brew, with a pretty large cast and a complex storyline set in two eras two centuries apart. This tale of poetical clashes and scholarly detective work is no easy flower to grow.

Brooklyn’s tenacious Heights Players have been cultivating a theatrical garden outside the usual Broadway/Off Broadway/Off Off Broadway ambit since the 1950s. Noel MacDuffie heads the company’s latest production, which runs through November 10. I asked the director what made him and the company take on this ambitious three-hour play.

MacDuffie related that the Heights Players have often staged difficult works, and have contemplated producing Arcadia for many years. “Selecting it,” he told me, “was mostly a question of finding resonance. And given that this is November and an election month, a play that examines the balance and necessity of order and chaos had a place in the conversation.”

Getting It Right?

MacDuffie knows whereof he speaks. He recently served two terms as the organization’s president, and has directed productions there since 2012. “I also recently completed a production of Aeschylus’ Orestreia (at another venue), which is three plays running a total of three and a half hours with a cast of 42. So I felt as ready as I would ever feel to take on Stoppard.

“That said, Arcadia was a huge challenge. To handle it, I felt it was essential that I have a point of view and interact with the play rather than putting it on a pedestal and trying to ‘get it right.’ The actors responded well to this thinking and really dug into the material. I trust audiences will be pleased with the result.”

Noel MacDuffie (photo by Alex Berg)
Noel MacDuffie (photo by Alex Berg)

And who are those audiences? “I believe that live theater is for everyone,” MacDuffie explained, “and I want every person to have a chance to get involved. That means budding professionals eager to hone their skills and folks who have always wanted to express themselves but never found the time, as well as dedicated members of our community who view this as their permanent artistic home.

“Broadway and Off Broadway are wonderful,” he continued, “but they are not the only places where exciting theater can happen. At the Heights Players, we put on nine shows a year, a season of three musicals and six straight plays…including shows both beloved and adventurous. And our ticket prices are the cheapest in town, so our audiences can truly come from all walks of life.”

An Arcadia of Twists and Turns

Considered one of Tom Stoppard’s best plays, Arcadia was last on Broadway in 2011, and I saw a masterful production by the Potomac Players in 2017. It is a masterpiece, but however fine the staging, there’s no shame in admitting that some of the nooks and crannies of its plot can be hard to follow.

Still, there’s no mistaking that its themes are powerful and universal. In MacDuffie’s view, Arcadia is “a sober representation of the human condition: We wish to understand and order everything, but we cannot do so because disorder touches all of our lives. For some this leads to fame, for others despair, for most it is just the turmoil of life. But that disorder ensures movement and progress essential to the entirety of human life.

“The genius of the play,” he went on, “is that Stoppard incorporates so many frames through which to view this representation – mathematics, historical research, and sexual trysts being only a few. As you note, this is all…a lot. But it ensures that every audience member will take something away from the experience. Do multiple viewings help? Absolutely. I have spent many months with this show and I still find new things. But even one viewing will give an audience member something to think about.”

A company like the Heights Players might be best described as community theater, and that’s a somewhat curious status amid New York City’s enormous multi-tiered theater ecosystem. With so much theater opportunity around, one is almost guaranteed to see some excellent acting talent no matter the overall quality of the play or production. This fine Arcadia is chock full of excellent performances. On that score, I asked MacDuffie one more question, one that touches on a frequent concern for discerning audience members as well as for actors and directors.

The Spoken Word

Overall, this batch of American actors do a consistently fine job with their British accents. (Kudos to accent coach Chrissy Brinkman.) Of course, it’s possible to put on a good production of a British show without going for authenticity in accents. The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, for example, don’t insist on Brit-speak, and put on wonderful spectacles of music and wit. Why did MacDuffie and his creative team feel it was important to present Tom Stoppard’s dialogue in authentic accents?

“One of the biggest challenges of this show is the language,” the director said. “It must be brisk and sparkle with the wit of the times during which it takes place. This a play about ideas paced like a mystery and sprinkled with plenty of humor. The accent aids the speed of the delivery, sharpens the humor, and helps shape the text to make the ideas digestible. To me, the accent is the key to the language – which is the key to the play.”

The only key you need to this Arcadia is a (very reasonably priced) ticket. Visit the Heights Players website for schedule and tickets. The show runs through November 10, 2024.

The post Theater: Heights Players Go All in on Tom Stoppard with ‘Arcadia’ in Brooklyn appeared first on Blogcritics.


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