Genre: Drama
Opened 4 June 2009
Written: by Tom Stoppard
Directed: David Leveaux
Cast: Samantha Bond (Hannah), Nancy Carroll (Lady Croom), Jessie Cave (Thomasina), Neil Pearson (Bernard), Dan Stevens (Septimus) , Ed Stoppard (Valentine)
Synopsis: April 1809, a stately home in Derbyshire…. Thomasina, a gifted pupil, proposes a startling theory, beyond her comprehension. All around her, the adults, including her tutor Septimus, are preoccupied with secret desires, illicit passions and professional rivalries. Two hundred years later, academic adversaries Hannah and Bernard, are piecing together puzzling clues, curiously recalling those events of 1809, in their quest for an increasingly elusive truth.

What the popular press had to say....
HENRY HITCHING'S for EVENING STANDARD says, "A toothsome entertainment that also thrills...curious, sophisticated and killingly funny." MICHAEL COVENEY for THE INDEPENDENT says, "Poignant and touching revival...an evening that gives such pure uncomplicated pleasure ." JOHN THAXTER for THE STAGE says, "David Leveaux’s airy revival...is a treat long overdue." MICHAEL BILLINGTON for THE GUARDIAN says, "Tom Stoppard's 1993 play gets richer with each viewing; David Leveaux's excellent revival reminds us there is poetry and passion behind the mathematics and metaphysics...the play both moving and intriguing." BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE for THE TIMES says, "Stoppard has the skill, wit and, yes, humanity to keep us absorbed by both the confusing past and the confused present...David Leveaux’s strongly acted revival leaves me feeling that it’s Sir Tom’s finest play." SARAH HEMMING for THE FINANCIAL TIMES says, "The depth, breadth and scope of the play are exhilarating, but what is so moving about it is its combination of head and heart: its passionate celebration of the human thirst for knowledge and desire to put a shape on the world."

External links to full reviews from popular press
The Guardian
Independent
The Times
Financial Times

Production photos by Catherine Ashmore