Many wonderful things have been written about this sprawling gem of a play since it was first staged in 1993. Two decades later, it still bamboozles, delights, and moves its audience in its uncompromising search for meaning in love and science. This was a production in genuine homage to one of the great plays of modern times.

First, though, a note of deepest praise for the Sydney Theatre Company, which is currently staging three massive shows of ideas, each with a big cast: Arcadia, The Golden Age, and The Secret River. No other Australian theatre company in recent times has presented such a cavalcade of big writing – in the case of the Australian works, by Louis Nowra (The Golden Age) and originating from Kate Grenville and scripted by Andrew Bovell (The Secret River). With the former (which I saw on 13 February, well into its run), we also have a revival of an Australian classic, first staged in the mid-1980s and, like Arcadia, one of the great plays of its period – hugely ambitious in ideas and wordcraft.