2001-05-02 fantastic turn of the century play

Anyone who loved Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" would be very likely to enjoy this well written play that toured Britain in 1998 (and was very recently broadcast on Radio 3). There are some similarities in structure and theme. Two time zones; two New Year's Eves, 1799 and 1999. In the former a philanthropic physician and his clever but frustrated wife, in the latter a talented female geneticist and her newly unemployed English lecturer husband. The same actors and the same large villa in Newcastle. Stir in riots, the ethics of science, letters home from a wayward colonial fiance, Roget's thesauraus, alien abduction, murder and a body that turns up 200 years later and the result is a rich mix. Brilliantly written and wonderfully funny. It is a play rather at risk of becoming an instant period piece so specific is its millenarial setting. Play readers should work to keep it alive as one of the best new plays of the late 90s.