Chelmer Community Theatre

31st Oct-22nd Nov 2026

Dr Gemma Regan 

Grab the opportunity to see Tom Stoppard’s iconic 1993 play Arcadia at the Chelmer Community Theatre, presented by the Centenary Theatre Group as they celebrate 50 years in showbiz.

It takes a brave director to take on such a famously long, verbose play—running to three hours, with matinee performances recommended for anyone who needs a reasonably early night. Fortunately, Fulbright Fellow Michael Beh has more than 70 productions under his belt and is perfectly equipped to embark on such an epic with flamboyant gusto.

Arcadia, the mythological pastoral paradise, is recreated at Sidley Park, an English country manor house in Derbyshire, in 1809. It celebrates the Georgian master of landscaping, Capability Brown, who revolutionised the English garden into one of follies and ha-has with an obligatory resident hermit.

Beh’s green-fingered production features bright, flamboyant costumes and a florally decorated set, with the action centred around a large table. The play concerns the scandals and lives of the Coverly family and their contact with Lord Byron, fluctuating between two eras: 1809–1812 and the late 1980s, grouped into the Old and New Romantics.

Stoppard is a modern playwright of great significance, with Arcadia as his flagship. However, it is prolix, with long philosophical monologues and characters engaged in an intellectual ping-pong of egos and ideas. The large digital program has a two-page glossary explaining concepts and words in the play, which, if the audience were to refer to on their phones (a big no-no), would detract from the action on stage.

The activities of two modern scholars and the current residents are juxtaposed with those of the Georgian period as a potential scandal unfolds, led by Bernard Nightingale, played by Andrew Wallace (Heroes, War of the Worlds), and feminist historian and author Hannah Jarvis, haughtily played by Selina Kadell (84 Charing Cross Road, Good Grief).

I saw the original star-studded production at the Royal National Theatre in London and found the CTG actors excellent at portraying each of the complex characters, of which there are many. Daniel Stanton (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cosi) is Septimus Hodge, the handsome tutor of Byron whose little book The Camp of Eros causes intrigue amongst the modern-day academics. His liberality with the ladies and sexy pirate-like attire is a dead cert for the controversial Russell Brand.

Hannah Martin’s (Big Fish, Amadeus) young, delicate Thomasina Coverly is perfect, as she verbally and mathematically spars with her tutor Hodge. Stoppard’s use of these characters to educate the great unwashed is more of a vanity project, and although initially of interest, the diatribes can become tedious and obscure the plot. The unnecessary live musical interludes also only serve to further slow the pace.

Fortunately, many of the characters bring some light comedic relief, with a pompous, peacock-feathered Lady Croom (Helen Ekundayo) and Trevor Bond as the bumbling butler. Mark Scott is amusing as a green-velveteened camp cuckold whose bluster hides his insecurity. Savant Valentine Coverly (Henry Dollar) struts and poses in a budgie smuggler, and his equally flirty sister Chloe (Dana Stolp) is good as the stereotyped Sloane Ranger. Lachlan Mills is entertaining as their violin-playing mute brother Gus and the conniving fox, Augustus Coverly. (Note: Double-check the program for whether the character is listed as Augustus or August).

There are some brilliant insights and gems hidden amongst the verbosity in a form of “Brideshead Regurgitated”, with quotes such as: “The unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is.”

Stoppard is truly a modern Shakespeare where the platinum is hidden amongst the silver, and this is a production that needs to be experienced. Beh and the CTG have succeeded in justifying why you should spend three hours in the theatre, once prepared: “A lesson in folly is worth two in wisdom!”

Imagery: Julie Collins