Mathematical theorems have become the stuff of entertainment over the past year, with Pulitzer Prize-winning Proof onstage and Oscar-buzzed A Beautiful Mind on screen.

        Long before either of them, an even more beautiful mind was considering mathematics and landscape gardening, natural philosophy and bedroom farce, free will and self-determination, the equations of science vs. art.

        The mind belongs to Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love), who sets dazzling words to glorious ideas in Arcadia, a play that manages to be intellectual comedy, bittersweet romance and time-hopping mystery.

        Finally getting its regional premiere, Arcadia is a big reach for Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival.

        While the production tatters slightly in its smallest supporting roles and scenically leaves a lot to be desired, director Jasson Minadakis marshals his forces and places them with the strategy of a first-rate general.

        With Arcadia he introduces two wonderful performers to the Cincinnati theater scene. Josephine Hall and John Alcott spark and sparkle, shaking up the festival ensemble and raising it to a new level.

        What doesn't work in Arcadia is easy to forgive under the spell of everything that does.

        The action takes place at Sidley Park, country seat of the Coverly family, in the early 19th century and in the present.

        It is the home of Lady Caroline Lamb, party to many romantic triangles. Sherman Fracher uses her brief time onstage to illuminate a complex woman.

        One particular weekend, a landscape gardener, a second-rate poet and Lord Byron (who remains unseen) are among the guests.

        Far more importantly, terrifyingly precocious Thomasina (Angela Groeschen) is discussing matters both worldly (carnality) and universal (God as Newtonian) with her tutor Septimus (Giles Davies). Ms. Groeschen, a festival Young Company member, is utterly endearing and believeable as a 13-year-old wunderkind.

        Almost 200 years later, a much later generation of the family is invaded by a pair of battling researchers. Nightingale (Mr. Alcott) wants to solve the mystery of Byron's sudden departure from England; Hannah is in pursuit of the facts behind a hermit in the garden.

        Mr. Stoppard's joke, which the audience is in on, is that the most casual behaviors in 1809 become not so much clues as red herrings to the present day “detectives.”

        Nightingale is completely blind to the most interesting of the earlier household's many secrets, which center around Thomasina. So is Hannah, until Valentine Coverly (an effective Brian Phillips) engages her in debate and casual romancing.

        The point being that we can never know. And, ironically, that wanting to know is what makes life worth living. Mr. Stoppard even invites us to join the conjecturing game by providing little mysteries in the present day setting.

        Mr. Stoppard also puts forth the theory that all of life is a procession even as individual lives are short, and what is lost — Thomasina takes a moment to grieve over the burned library of ancient Alexandria — will be found again. He goes on to prove his theory with great delicacy and poignancy.

        Nightingale is an outrageously big role, and Mr. Alcott fills it from the top of his head to the tips of his feet. We know this character not just from what he says but from Mr. Alcott's fizzy, physical approach.

        Ms. Hall more than holds her own as his verbal sparring partner. She finds the heart of sensible Hannah, who doesn't dance — until the moment is right.

        If it were a perfect world, Will Turbyne's workable scenic design would have more elegant trimmings (of course beyond the festival's budget).

        But in a more perfect world Cincinnati audiences wouldn't have had to wait almost 10 years to see this superb play. Open your heart to it and you will be transported.
        Arcadia, through Feb. 10, Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, 381-2273.

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