Even Tom Stoppard's most entertaining scripts tend to have some pretty serious thoughts scattered among the dazzling wordplay. When he decides to take on Life, the Universe and Everything, the result is a play called Arcadia and you might want to see it twice just to pick up on what you missed the first time around. Stoppard tosses ideas around the way Pike Market vendors fling fish and demands close attention from the audience to catch them all.

Director Donald Drummond is a Stoppard aficionado and it shows clearly in this Skagit Valley College production. A major factor in his successful direction of the show is his rock-solid casting. Stoppard's verbal pyrotechnics demand both prodigious memory and the ability to sell every word from the actors. If there is an overarching theme, it is about chaos theory, entropy and the fact that we will all end up waltzing at room temperature in an English manor house. Getting there is half the fun.

The deceptively simple set acts as one of the characters in the show. Simplicity of design doesn't mean it didn't require a lot of work and set designer/builder Mark O'Brien deserves enormous credit. His work is complemented beautifully by Taylor Stein's flawless lighting design. Costumer Marijo Henning has obviously had a field day with costumes that range from early 19th century to modern.

Now, back to those actors. Cail Musick-Slater delivers a star turn as the tutor of a precocious young princess played delightfully by Stephanie Brisky. The brash tutor conducts extracurricular anatomy lessons in the gazebo and his young pupil is itching to take those classes.

To my mind, the most riveting interplay takes place between a pretentious professor of literature, played to pompous perfection by Lucas Naylor, and a cynical author and researcher icily portrayed by Lacy Tianna. Their battle of wits (and of the sexes) is both wildly funny and intellectually riveting as Romanticism and Classicism go mano a mano.
When the professor gets his comeuppance at the behest of a dahlia, it is Stoppard at his finest. As is Tianna's line referring to Naylor's verbosity: "Rhetoric was their talk show."

Carolyn Travis is magnificently matronly as the mother of the prodigy and the tutor's enthusiastic colleague in the gazebo goings-on. Travis' hubby Trey Hatch defines upperclass British twitdom to a tea in his role as an unfortunately prosaic poet.

The voice of scientific reason is the author's fiancée, a geek of Gatesian proportions played with great subtlety by Kelly Sohultz. Mark Peterson is sensationally subservient as a landscape architect trying desperately to please the demanding lady of the manor. Cail Musick-Slater's father, Rob, defines ramrod straight as a Naval officer and Joe Wilson is the soul of dignity as the butler (who didn't do it). Taylor Goldstein plays the older sister of the prodigy with a verve that proves randiness runs in the family. Last, but far from least, Mason Eger has a mostly silent role that he turns into a show-stopper with a magnetic stage presence.

Together, this ensemble takes what could be a snoozer and makes it rock. When you've got nothing but words to work with, you'd better have a cast that can keep the audience's attention and this group closes the sale professionally.

Arcadia plays November 13, 14, 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. with a 2:00 p.m. matinee on Sunday, November 22. The production takes place at the wonderful Phillip Tarro Theatre at Skagit Valley College in Mt. Vernon. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for seniors and SVC students get in free. Call (360) 416-7723 for reservations. Strong language and adult themes make this show inappropriate for young children.

Watch for a stellar crawl-on part by a turtle named Lightning.