The University of Iowa Department of Theatre Arts will continue its Mainstage season with Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia. Opening night is Friday, Nov. 13, at 8 p.m. in the E.C. Mabie Theatre. Additional performances will follow on Nov. 14 and Nov. 18—21 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 15 at 2 p.m.

As noted on the performance's event page, "Stoppard's Arcadia unfolds on an English country estate, alternating between the early nineteenth century and the present day. Love affairs bloom and scandals erupt while Thomasina and her tutor Septimus casually stumble onto the secrets of the universe. Two hundred years later, ambitious scholars Hannah and Bernard search through journals and records that have been collecting dust, racing each other to uncover the estate’s mysterious history. Gradually, the veil that separates these two realities disappears, and in a waltz between passion and reason, order and chaos, and life and death, time finally stands still."

This UI Theatre Mainstage production will be directed my MFA Directing Candidate Ariel Francoeur. "When I told people I was directing Arcadia, I was immediately asked the standard ‘What is it about?’ question," Francoeur says. "I found that, more than usual, I had a difficult time answering with any consistency. There are so many grand ideas in the play, always dancing in opposition: order versus chaos, thinking versus feeling, math versus poetry, past versus present, the tortoise versus the hare, etc. How could I choose which theme was most important? It seemed as challenging as spotting the tune of a piano in a symphony.

"As I kept searching for an answer, it slowly occurred to me that Stoppard’s complexity of ideas moves in step with its own partner: the simplicity of his story. This creates a brilliant and even bigger duality that shows difficult theoretical concepts, complex emotions, and intricate thoughts of character alongside basic and universal human needs and desires."

Francoeur is a third-year MFA director and an Iowa Arts fellow. Her previous productions at the University of Iowa include Faculty Portrait, by Sean David Demers; Falls for Jodie, by Eric Holmes; Waterbound, by Sam Lahne; Speed of Light and Medusa Undone, by Bella Poynton; and Pvt. Wars, by James McLure. She has directed and acted in New York and regionally. Francoeur is the managing director of the science fiction theater company The Navigators, co-founded with two University of Iowa alumni.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact the Hancher Box Office in advance at 319-335-1158.