Arcadia at Duke of York’s Theatre: A magnificent monument to Tom Stoppard

By chance, the Duke of York’s was where the first major London revival of Arcadia was staged in 2009, in a production starring Stoppard’s son Ed: I interviewed Stoppard there, on the balcony overlooking St Martin’s Lane, so he could smoke. As always with this writer, synchronicities and synergies abound, as well as ironies. Stoppard was born Tomáš Straüssler in Czechoslovakia, and his stepfather Major Kenneth Stoppard once accused him of bringing the English family name into disrepute with his theatrical shenanigans.