Nottingham Playhouse artistic director Giles Croft, who was one of the first people to read Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, is to direct the play, which rounds off the theatre’s Time and Memory season.
Said Croft, “I came across Arcadia in 1992. At the time I was the literary manager at the National Theatre. Tom Stoppard submitted the play to us for consideration. In my opinion it’s an intellectually stimulating play, a good story—a piece of detective fiction—and emotionally very engaging.”
It received its première at the National Theatre in 1993 and won the Laurence Olivier Award for best new play. David Bark-Jones, an understudy for the original staging, plays Bernard Nightingale in Nottingham while Mark Jonathan, who was lighting designer at the National, takes the same role in Giles Croft’s production.
Arcadia is set in Sidley Park, a grand house in Derbyshire. It takes place in the early 1800s and the present day. The activities of two modern scholars and the house's current residents are juxtaposed with those of the people who used to live there.
The cast includes Emily Laing as Thomasina Coverly, Parth Thakerar (Septimas Hodge), Mark Jardine (Jellaby and Richard Noakes), James Thorne (Ezra Chater), Lizzy McInnerny (Lady Croom), Robin Kingsland (Captain Brice), Teresa Banham (Hannah Jarvis), Florence Roberts (Chloe Coverly), Ilan Goodman (Valentine Coverly) and Jacob Seelochan (Gus Coverly and Augustus Coverly).
Madeline Girling, winner of the Linbury Prize, “the UK's most prestigious award for stage design”, is set designer for both Arcadia and J B Priestley’s Time and the Conways, the previous production in the Time and Memory season.
She said, “I’m so excited to be working in this theatre with such brilliantly skilled people and fantastic resources. It will have been over a year since my journey designing both sets began and finally to see them come to life in this beautiful theatre is very special.”
Arcadia runs at Nottingham Playhouse from Friday 31 October until Saturday 15 November.