The modern scenes feature Bernard Nightingale (Prasanna Puwanarajah) a university lecturer from Sussex researching poet Mr Chater (Matthew Steer) and Chater’s flirtatious wife’s past with Lord Byron.  Bernard’s discovery trail reads like a mystery thriller and in opposition to him in the 1990s is Sidley Park resident cynic Hannah Jarvis (Leila Farzad).  In this production I found Prasanna Puwanarajah’s character more charming than I had in 2009 at the Duke of York’s and here Hannah to be unkind but the verbal sparring between them is a delight. It is Augustus Coverly (William Lawlor)’s stored game books recording game shot which are kept in a commode which contribute evidence. 

The final half hour like the circular Venn overlap in the ceiling’s set by designer, Alex Eales, has characters from both time periods on stage but playing separate scenes. The theatre is in its circular formation with the set able to revolve, a simple round mahogany table forming the centrepiece in both eras. Suzanne Cave’s costumes are lovely although the production photos are rather dark as a result of the sudued and often candle lit lighting. 

I can’t praise this intellectual and stellar production highly enough.  Carrie Cracknell shows great skill as director and gets brilliant and believable performances from all. Hopefully Sir Tom Stoppard is watching all this from Heaven and realising how much we miss him and his delicious wit. 

Five stars from Theatrevibe, the site that doesn’t do stars, for the Old Vic’s magnificent production of Arcadia.