Here are some quick and informal thoughts on the production of Arcadia on Broadway, which I saw tonight with my English class. Essentially, it was mindblowing. In the most subtle way possible. Granted, its verbose and complicated nature makes it extremely inaccessible. I feel like everything my English seminar (titled “Science Literature & Culture) has been studying so far has been leading up to the sole goal of reading, seeing, and comprehending Arcadia, from reading Plato’s theory of education and Darwin and the chaos theory to Sherwood Anderson’s “Winesburg, Ohio” and Zora Neale Hurston.

And maybe some of the people (or friends) of higher intellectual capacity will read this post and scoff at the idea that I needed an entire semester to train myself to understand Tom Stoppard. But it was so worth it. If you’ve ever had that feeling of complete and utter harmony, that certain “click” when everything slides into place and the universe feels infinite and beautiful, whether it be realizing the theme of a novel or the mechanism of a scientific process, then you can probably empathize with how I was feeling after watching Arcadia.

I can't summarize the play - it simply can't be summed up. What is it about? Life. The universe. Science, literature, humanities, love, chaos, disorder, academia. It satirizes and philosophizes and explores. My classmates and I fell in love with a few specific characters, and it has one of the best teenaged-female characters in history, Thomasina. Just take my word for it that it has anything and everything you would desire in a play. It's one of the richest theatre-going experiences you can possibly have.

-Andrea Shang

One of many references made during the play- this one is "Et en Arcadia Ego", which translates to "I Am Here In Arcadia Also," the titular "I" meaning Death (images courtesy arcadiabroadway.com)