There are some plays that should be read before being seen and Sir Tom Stoppard’s ‘Arcadia’, now playing at the Daylesford Theatre, is such a play.A multiplicity of theories, philosophies and scientific concepts explored in clever prose through two time periods is too much to absorb in one sitting. One would like to pause and reflect, but the action moves on inexorably.Given the complexity of the language and the concepts, it would have helped audience members coming to the play for the first time if some of the cast had spoken a little more slowly and carefully. Nevertheless, the BMDS production of this challenging play, directed by visiting director Terry Tweed and produced by Jo Shane and Jennifer Osmond, is generally a solid one and well worth seeing.In this short review there isn’t enough space for a plot summary that would do justice to the play. Suffice it to say that Stoppard’s reflection on the nature of knowledge and man’s pursuit of it is explored in one bright airy room of a stately home, Sidley Park, furnished with a large pine table which is littered with books, papers and objets but in two time periods, the early 19th century and the late 20th.The play opens with Septimus Hodge, a tutor to Thomasina Coverly, attempting to deflect his precocious charge’s queries about carnal knowledge while he reads ‘The Couch of Eros’, written by one of the house guests, Ezra Chater. They are interrupted by Chater himself, calling Hodge out for his assignation with Mrs Chater in the gazebo. With easy flattery Hodge diverts Chater’s attention to his work, sending him off apparently as well satisfied as his wife. Careful observation of the world around her leads Thomasina to question the nature of things and to develop prescient notions of mathematics. Her mother, Lady Croom, debates with landscape gardener Richard Noakes the merits of turning an ordered, classical landscape into a wild Romantic one.In the 20th Century, a lecturer in English romantic literature, Bernard Nightingale, is seeking to establish his reputation as a scholar of note by exploring an obscure aspect of the life of Lord Byron - his connection to Chater. Hannah Jarvis, whose work Nightingale has dismissed in a scathing review, is conducting her own research at the house on the evolution of the house’s landscape architecture. She reluctantly agrees to share material with Nightingale. Their investigations are helped by Coverly descendants, Valentine, a post-graduate student in mathematical biology, and his silent younger brother Gus. The treasure hunt for information and the modern (mis)interpretation of the material remains of the previous occupants is paralleled with the unfolding of the actual events in the 19th century.‘Arcadia’ explores the nature of evidence and truth, chaos and order, and ranges widely over concepts in history, literature, mathematics and physics interspersed with witty observations about less esoteric subjects such as sex and the relative merits of topographical features.The small Daylesford stage has been transformed into a convincing replica of a comfortable panelled study with views beyond the stone balcony to the surrounding countryside. Equally helpful in transporting the audience to a different time and place are the well-designed and crafted costumes.While it is unfair to be too critical of actors who must maintain day jobs to keep the wolf from the door, it has to be said that the acting was uneven though none was bad. Deborah Pharoah-Williams gave a strong performance as Hannah Jarvis, as did Will Kempe as Bernard Nightingale. The dynamics between a ‘blue stocking’ who has sworn off relationships for the sake of knowledge and a suave self-promoter careless of the evidence were explored delightfully.Young Brittany Ray was generally convincing as a lively, bright girl on the cusp of womanhood, and Jo Shane came across well as an imperious Lady Croom. Tutor Septimus Hodge, played by James Birch, was not as urbane and debonair as I expected a man of passion and poetry to be, and he tended to swallow his lines, mouthfuls that they were.Considered by some as “the finest play from one of the most significant contemporary playwrights in the English language”, Stoppard’s ‘Arcardia’ is a play of grand ideas and clever prose, and the Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society is to be commended for rising to the challenge of presenting it to local audiences.I would like to echo the sentiments of Ms Tweed in the programme notes and thank the cast and crew for “their patience, their commitment and their wonderful work” in bringing to the local stage a play of international import.‘Arcadia’ runs until July 14 (no performance on July 8 or 9) with curtain at 8pm. Tickets, $30, are available from the Daylesford box office an hour before curtain (292-0848) or online, www.bmds.bm