“We shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it.”

In honor of the long and prolific life of playwright Tom Stoppard, who died on November 29 of this year at the age of 88, Leviathan Bookstore is hosting a live reading of his work on the evening of Thursday, December 11. We’ll be presenting Arcadia, which takes us back and forth between the centuries and explores the nature of truth and time, the difference between the Classical and the Romantic temperament, and the disruptive influence of sex on our orbits in life—"the attraction," as one character says, "which Newton left out." It has been called by one critic the “greatest play written in the English language in the last 150 years.”

And when we say we’ll be presenting, we mean you, too. This is an interactive event and there are a dozen roles to fill, so don’t be shy about stepping up to perform one. No costumes or memorization required—we’ll all have scripts in hand for this table read. Pick up a copy in advance if you like or purchase one that night.

If you’d like to reserve a copy of Arcadia, order here.