Maine Masque’s production of ‘Arcadia’ off-kilter

You’ve got to give it to University of Maine theater director Tom Mikotowicz. He’s not afraid to take risks. He’s not afraid to go over the top with programming. He’s not afraid to stretch an audience — or the students who make up the casts for Maine Masque shows.

Mikotowicz’s newest challenge is Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia,” which won the 1993 Olivier Award in London and the 1995 Drama Critics’ Circle Award in New York. The play travels between the early 19th century and the present, engaging its characters in a battle of wits, of desires and of the ethics of landscaping — to mention only one of its arcane topics. It is unquestionably the work of a virtuoso playwright — beloved among language junkies, scientists, mathematicians and nut cases alike. (Stoppard is best known, by the way, for the rollicking “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” which was also made into a feature-length film.) The real boon of a Stoppard play is that, for hardcore fans, it’s almost more fun to read than it is to see.

In fact, if you plan to see the Maine Masque production of “Arcadia,” it’s worth reading the play before settling into your theater seat for this 2 1/2-hour production. The student actors have adopted British accents — and none too smoothly. Plus, there’s a volume problem. Some actors don’t get the words past the edge of the stage, while at least one distractingly shouts all his lines. So the production itself — on last Friday’s opening night, anyway — can be a garble of poorly articulated lines of genius.

Giving credit where credit is due, Wayne Merritt’s raked stage is a daunting representation of a large country house fighting a good round between Romanticism and modernity. And Jane Snider’s costumes are also quite elegant and smart.

But sad to say, there are no outstanding performers or particularly memorable moments in the show — at least not ones that have much to do with Stoppard’s words. Even as an ensemble cast, as this one is, there are too many individuals vying for attention, and that jeopardizes the rhythm, crispness and speed necessary to give this play its full due.

Three comments that were overheard in the foyer during opening night’s intermission sum up the event all too well.

“They’re not getting it out there,” one woman said.

“I need coffee,” her companion added.

“I have no idea what’s going on,” someone else said.

If you’re a regular Maine Masque theatergoer, you know it’s the exception rather than the rule for a play to be off-kilter there. Unfortunately, “Arcadia” is not the theater department at its best, but at its most hopeful. If you decide to go nevertheless — and it’s tempting to do that because who else in town will put on a Stoppard play? — then do yourself a favor by reading the script and sitting up front.

The School of Performing Arts and Maine Masque will present Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” at noon Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in Hauck Auditorium at the University of Maine. For tickets, call 581-1773.