Arcadia (play)

Arcadia is a play by Tom Stoppard which first opened at the Royal National Theatre in London on 13 April 1993 and has played at many theatres since. It impressed the critics: the London Daily Telegraph's critic wrote "I have never left a new play more convinced that I'd just witnessed a masterpiece"

It is set in an English country house, at two periods, 1809 and 1989, and switches between them. It takes an acid look at academic research, where modern historians interpret clues which we see being left by the inhabitants of the earlier time, exploring the nature of evidence and truth. This is combined with modern ideas of mathematics and physics.