Sex. Death. Poetry. - and Lightning, the family tortoise.

In a large country house in Derbyshire in 1809, Lady Thomasina Coverly, sits with her tutor, Septimus Hodge: 'What is carnal embrace?' Beyond them the idealized landscape is being transformed into Gothic wilderness. 180 years later, garden historian Hannah Jarvis's research has been interrupted by the arrival of Bernard Nightingale, an academic set to reveal a scandal said to have taken place when Lord Byron stayed at Sidley Park.

As the centuries pile on top of one another, Tom Stoppard's play takes us on an exploration of nature, truth and time, and how a life's true course is hijacked by sex - 'the attraction which Newton left out'.

Week 5
Tuesday - Thursday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 1.30pm
(20-24 May 2008)