Meet the Cast of ARCADIA Day 12: Lia Williams

Tom Stoppard's ARCADIA is coming to Broadway for a limited engagement this spring, following a sold out run in London where it was heralded as a "dazzling masterpiece, a glimpse of theatrical heaven" (The Daily Telegraph) and "the greatest play of its time" (The Independent).

Directed by five-time Tony Award® nominee David Leveaux, ARCADIA is "Stoppard's richest, most ravishing comedy" (The New York Times) - a witty masterpiece of misunderstanding and quest for knowledge, resonating across centuries.

April 1809, an elegant English country estate... a gifted pupil, proposes a startling theory well beyond her comprehension. All around her, the adults, including her tutor, are preoccupied with secret desires, illicit passions and professional rivalries.

Two hundred years later, two academic adversaries are piecing together puzzling clues, curiously recalling those events of 1809 in their quest for an increasingly elusive truth.

ARCADIA features an exquisite cast including Margaret Colin, Billy Crudup, Raúl Esparza, Glenn Fleshler, Grace Gummer, Edward James Hyland, Byron Jennings, Bel Powley, Tom Riley, Noah Robbins, David Turner and Lia Williams. Crudup, who won a Tony Award for his performance in Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia, made his Broadway debut in the 1995 production of ARCADIA. Esparza has received four Tony Award nominations for starring roles on Broadway in Speed-the-Plow (2009), The Homecoming (2008), Company (2007) and Taboo (2004). Lia Williams made her Broadway debut in David Hare's Skylight for which she received a Tony Award nomination and Olivier Award nomination.

Tom Stoppard, one of the most celebrated and prolific playwrights of modern day, has been represented on Broadway with seventeen different productions to date including Rock 'n' Roll, Jumpers, The Real Thing, Travesties, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and The Coast of Utopia, which received the most Tony Awards of any play on Broadway. David Leveaux's previous collaborations with Stoppard include the Tony Award-winning revival of The Real Thing and the Tony-nominated revival of Jumpers, receiving Tony Award nominations for his direction of both.

Name: Hannah Jarvis Background: The author of a popular best-seller on Byron's mistress Lady Caroline Lamb, Hannah is researching the elusive hermit of Sidley Park, who lived in the hermitage there in the early 19th century. Hannah collaborates (sometimes warily) with Bernard (and also with Valentine), though she rejects the romantic advances of both in order to focus on her work. Portrayed by: Lia Williams: Broadway: Skylight (National Theatre, West End, Broadway – Tony Nomination, Theatre World Award, Oliver Nom). New York: The Homecoming, Celebration/The Room. West End: The Revenger’s Comedies (Olivier Nomination, Critics Circle Award), Daisy Pulls It Off, Absurd Person Singular, Oleanna. Other Theatre: Earthquakes in London, The Hothouse, Mappa Mundi (The National Theatre), Postcards From America and As You Like It (The Royal Shakespeare Company), Eccentricities Of A Nightingale (Gate Theatre Dublin – Best Actress Award) My Child, Oleanna, King Lear (The Royal Court), Lady From The Sea, God Of Carnage, Body Language. TV: “Doc Martin,” “Miss Marple,” “The Last Detective,” “May 33rd” (BBC – BAFTA, RTS Noms), “The Russian Bride” (FIPA Award), “Bad Blood,” “Imogen’s Face,” “A Shot Through the Heart” (HBO), “The Uninvited,” “Flowers of the Forest,” “Seaforth,” “Mr. Wroe’s Virgins.” Film: Jonathan Toomey, Girl From Rio, The King is Alive, Different For Girls, The Fifth Province, Firelight, Dirty Weekend. Radio: “Scenes of Seduction,” “The Raj Quartet,” “Japanese Gothic Tales,” “Easy Virtue,” “Breath of God,” “Season’s Greetings,” “Red Room,” “The Idiots,” “Tom And Viv,” “TS Eliot’s The Four Quartets” and “The Wasteland.” Director: The Stronger (short film) (Best Film Raindance Award and BAFTA Award), Dog Alone (short film), Feathers (short film).

ARCADIA begins previews February 26. The show's opening is set for March 17.

For more information, visit www.arcadiabroadway.com.