Arcadia at Court Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...Newell’s approach is similarly lean (Matthew York’s set is mostly a table and a bookcase), but he uncoils the play quite differently, exploding its usual realistic style. Newell’s actors are happy to address the audience — or climb on top of a table or splutter their way into the aisles. Unusual spotlights highlight ideas — and, although it’s still rooted in reality, the nature of this smart theatrical universe wisely keeps you guessing."

Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended

"...The actors in this play must be sharp as tacks, both intellectually and technically, and Newell has gathered a highly polished ensemble that includes the luminous, captivating Caputo and the edgy Goodman, who is drawn to both his student and her fetching mother, Lady Croom (Kate Fry at her sophisticated best), among others."

Daily Herald - Recommended

"...Court Theatre's refined revival directed by Charles Newell earns my admiration. The savvy Newell keeps characters circling each other (an appropriate visual for a play underscored by physics) in this elegantly acted and nimbly staged production, which - except for a rather sluggish scene concerning geometry and grouse - hums along."

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...The running jokes here are the paradoxical parallels that Stoppard invents as the past penetrates the present. Capability itself, Charles Newell's dream cast dazzles, never showing off or losing its grip on a script whose degree of difficulty is Olympian."

Windy City Times - Highly Recommended

"...In the Court Theatre production of Arcadia, Stoppard’s soaringly romantic and intellectually mind-bending masterpiece shimmers like a multi-faceted diamond. The angles of geometry astound like the verses of the Lake Poets: Lord Byron and his contemporaries merge and diverge with exquisitely graphed equations through which surely—if one only had enough paper and enough time to do the calculations properly—the secrets of the universe would reveal themselves and all would be known."

Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...The Court’s attractive but for-no-apparent-reason revival has as good a cast as you’d possibly want, and they play the thing with deep respect. But while this is the best group of actors we’ve ever seen perform Arcadia, it’s also the first time we’ve ever been a little bored by the play itself."

ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended

"...Stoppard’s complex plot and multi-themed work is an exercise highlighting the dilemma in trying to understand the past and the problems science faces in its attempt to quantify all life experiences. Sexual attraction is the variable that thwarts scientific formulas for human behavior. Stoppard, ever the teacher, cleverly gets us pondering ideas like the nature of truth as he entices us with the twin mysteries of who was the hermit in Sidley Manor and did Lord Byron really kill the obscure poet in a duel? You’ll have to get to Court Theatre to see for yourself. Once more, Court Theatre proves why they are among the best theatre companies in Chicago."