Tom Stoppard's Arcadia: (Modern Theatre Guides)

This is an accessible and informative critical introduction to Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" - a play commonly studied at undergraduate level.Tom Stoppard is widely regarded as one of the leading contemporary British playwrights, a writer who has earned an intriguing mix of both critical and commercial success. "Arcadia" is considered by many critics to be Stoppard's masterpiece, a work that weds his early career love for words and ideas with his later career emphasis on storytelling and emotional engagement.With its engaging alteration between past and present "Arcadia" offers a comedic and entertaining exploration of chaos theory, entropy, the Second Law of thermodynamics, iterated algorithms, fractals, and other concepts culled the realms of math and science. This guide provides a comprehensive critical introduction to the play, giving students a much-needed overview of the play's background and context including Stoppard's source material as well as full discussion of the text and its performance history to date."Continuum Modern Theatre Guides" offer concise, accessible and informed introductions to the key plays of modern times. Each book is carefully structured to offer a systematic study of the play in its biographical, historical, social and political context, an in-depth study of the text, an overview of the work's production history including screen adaptations, and practical workshopping exercises. They also include a timeline and suggestions for further reading which highlight key critical approaches. This will enable students to develop their understanding of playwrights and theatre-makers, as well as inspiring them to broaden their studies.

Table of Contents:
General Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Background and Context; 2. Analysis and Commentary; 3. Production History; 4. Workshopping the Play; Timeline; Further Reading; References; Index.

About the Author :
John Fleming is Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Texas State University, USA. He has conducted extensive research in the Tom Stoppard Archive at the University of Texas and is the author of Stoppard's Theatre: Finding Order Amid Chaos (University of Texas Press)

Review :
"An enlightening entryway into Stoppard's luminous play, Fleming's commentary on Arcadia is informed by his attention to theatrical issues as well as his deep understanding of the of the play's multilayered themes." - Professor Michael Vanden Heuvel, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA "Fleming's book offers the student and Stoppard enthusiast a fully researched and clearly written analysis of what many call Stoppard's best play. From the background and context section describing Stoppard's entire oeuvre to date, to the final section offering suggestions for teaching Arcadia, this book situates the play squarely within Stoppard's writing about science. Fleming's precise analyses of the play's characters and his informed discussion of its themes offer the student and instructor an intelligent framework for understanding Arcadia as a profound and comic play of ideas." - Katherine E. Kelly, Texas A&M University, USA  Briefly reviewed in the Year's work in English Studies journal, vol 89, No. 1  ‘Drawing on previously unpublished material with Stoppard, Fleming's volume traces the history of the play's production and its cultural and historical context'