The Coast of Utopia
Encyclopedia
The Coast of Utopia is a 2002 trilogy
of plays: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage, written by Tom Stoppard
with focus on the philosophical debates in pre-revolution Russia
between 1833 and 1866. It was the recipient of the 2007 Tony Award for Best Play
.
The trilogy, nine hours in total, premiered with Voyage on 22 June 2002 at the National Theatre's
Olivier auditorium in repertory, directed by Trevor Nunn
. The openings of Shipwreck and Salvage followed on 8 July, and 19 July, completing its run on 23 November 2002. In 2006, directed by Jack O'Brien
, the plays debuted on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, New York City
, where it closed on May 13, 2007 after a combined total of 124 performances.
The trilogy has also been performed in Russia; it opened at Moscow
's Russian Academic Youth Theatre in October 2007, directed by Alexey Borodin.
The trilogy received its Japanese premiere at Theater Cocoon, Bunkamura in Tokyo
on 12 September 2009 and completed its run (including 10 one-day marathon performances) on 4 October 2009. The production was directed by Yukio Ninagawa
.
, the trilogy premiered with Voyage at the Olivier Theatre in London on 22 June 2002, followed by Shipwreck and Salvage with a six-month run ended on 23 November 2002.
Reviewing the play in The Guardian
, drama critic Michael Billington
wrote, "Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia in the Olivier is a bundle of contradictions. Comprising three three-hour plays, it is heroically ambitious and wildly uneven. ... But I wouldn't have missed it for worlds and at its heart it contains a fascinating lesson about the nature of drama." He further commented on Stoppard the dramatist, "I think it is time we began to appreciate Stoppard not for his intellectual legerdemain, but for what he is actually best at: exploring the mystery of existence, the anguish of the human heart and the strange fact that it is our apprehension of death that gives joy and intensity to life."
at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York City. The cast included Brían F. O'Byrne
, Richard Easton
, Jennifer Ehle
, Billy Crudup
, Ethan Hawke
, Josh Hamilton
, Martha Plimpton
, David Harbour
, Jason Butler Harner
and Amy Irving
.
Viewed as "the season's ultimate snob ticket", the production ran from November 2006 to May 2007 with a combined total of 124 performances.
In his review for The New York Times
, Ben Brantley
called the production "brave and gorgeous", adding that "I wouldn't call it [the play] a major work of art. In literary terms I wouldn't even rank it with Mr. Stoppard's best (in which I include the Broadway-bound Rock 'n' Roll
). But as directed by Jack O'Brien and acted and designed by a stellar team of artisans, Utopia is a major work of theatrical craftsmanship, a luscious advertisement for the singular narrative seductiveness of drama."
The production was nominated for ten Tony Awards and won seven, breaking the Tony record for the most awards given to a play.
Awards
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
of plays: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage, written by Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
with focus on the philosophical debates in pre-revolution Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
between 1833 and 1866. It was the recipient of the 2007 Tony Award for Best Play
Tony Award for Best Play
The Tony Award for Best Play is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theatre, including musical theatre, honoring productions on Broadway in New York. It currently takes place in mid-June each year.There was no award in the Tony's first year...
.
The trilogy, nine hours in total, premiered with Voyage on 22 June 2002 at the National Theatre's
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
Olivier auditorium in repertory, directed by Trevor Nunn
Trevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the stage, as well as opera...
. The openings of Shipwreck and Salvage followed on 8 July, and 19 July, completing its run on 23 November 2002. In 2006, directed by Jack O'Brien
Jack O'Brien (director)
Jack O'Brien is an American director, producer, writer and lyricist. He served as the Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California from 1981 through the end of 2007....
, the plays debuted on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where it closed on May 13, 2007 after a combined total of 124 performances.
The trilogy has also been performed in Russia; it opened at Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
's Russian Academic Youth Theatre in October 2007, directed by Alexey Borodin.
The trilogy received its Japanese premiere at Theater Cocoon, Bunkamura in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
on 12 September 2009 and completed its run (including 10 one-day marathon performances) on 4 October 2009. The production was directed by Yukio Ninagawa
Yukio Ninagawa
is a Japanese theatre director, particularly known for his Japanese language productions of Shakespeare plays and Greek tragedies. He has directed Hamlet differently six times....
.
London premiere
Directed by Trevor NunnTrevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the stage, as well as opera...
, the trilogy premiered with Voyage at the Olivier Theatre in London on 22 June 2002, followed by Shipwreck and Salvage with a six-month run ended on 23 November 2002.
Reviewing the play in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, drama critic Michael Billington
Michael Billington (critic)
Michael Keith Billington is a British author and arts critic. Drama critic of The Guardian since October 1971, he is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts; most notably, he is the authorised...
wrote, "Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia in the Olivier is a bundle of contradictions. Comprising three three-hour plays, it is heroically ambitious and wildly uneven. ... But I wouldn't have missed it for worlds and at its heart it contains a fascinating lesson about the nature of drama." He further commented on Stoppard the dramatist, "I think it is time we began to appreciate Stoppard not for his intellectual legerdemain, but for what he is actually best at: exploring the mystery of existence, the anguish of the human heart and the strange fact that it is our apprehension of death that gives joy and intensity to life."
Broadway debut
The trilogy's Broadway debut was directed by Jack O'BrienJack O'Brien (director)
Jack O'Brien is an American director, producer, writer and lyricist. He served as the Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California from 1981 through the end of 2007....
at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York City. The cast included Brían F. O'Byrne
Brían F. O'Byrne
Brían Francis O'Byrne is an Irish actor who works mostly in the United States. He was born in Mullagh, County Cavan.O'Byrne first attracted notice for his performances in the Martin McDonagh plays The Beauty Queen of Leenane as Pato Dooley and The Lonesome West...
, Richard Easton
Richard Easton
Richard Easton is a Canadian actor. He is best known in for his portrayal of Brian Hammond in the 1970s BBC serial The Brothers.-Biography:...
, Jennifer Ehle
Jennifer Ehle
Jennifer Ehle is an American actress of stage and screen. She is known for her BAFTA winning role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice.-Early life:...
, Billy Crudup
Billy Crudup
William Gaither "Billy" Crudup is an American actor of film and stage. He is well known for his roles as guitarist Russell Hammond in Almost Famous, Will Bloom in Big Fish, and Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke. He also starred in the 2007 romantic comedy film Dedication, alongside Mandy Moore...
, Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role...
, Josh Hamilton
Josh Hamilton (actor)
Josh C. Hamilton is an American actor.Hamilton was born in New York City, New York. His father is actor Dan Hamilton, and his stepmother is actress Stephanie Braxton...
, Martha Plimpton
Martha Plimpton
Martha Campbell Plimpton is an American actress and singer and former model. Plimpton is a screen, stage and television actress. She first appeared as Jonsy in the feature film River Rats before rising to prominence in the Richard Donner film The Goonies portraying the character Stef...
, David Harbour
David Harbour
David Harbour is an American actor who has performed in film, television and in the theater. He is known for his role as villain Gregg Beam in Quantum of Solace, as Shep Campbell in Revolutionary Road, and as Russell Crowe's source in State of Play...
, Jason Butler Harner
Jason Butler Harner
Jason Thomas Butler Harner is an American actor.-Biography:Harner was born in Elmira, New York and grew up in suburban Northern Virginia, where he had the opportunity of seeing a handful of plays at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. His middle name Butler is his mother’s maiden name. He graduated...
and Amy Irving
Amy Irving
Amy Davis Irving is an American actress, known for her roles in the films Crossing Delancey, The Fury, Carrie, and Yentl as well as acclaimed roles on Broadway and Off-Broadway. She has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and has won an Obie award...
.
Viewed as "the season's ultimate snob ticket", the production ran from November 2006 to May 2007 with a combined total of 124 performances.
In his review for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Ben Brantley
Ben Brantley
Benjamin D. "Ben" Brantley is an American journalist and the chief theater critic of The New York Times.-Life and career:...
called the production "brave and gorgeous", adding that "I wouldn't call it [the play] a major work of art. In literary terms I wouldn't even rank it with Mr. Stoppard's best (in which I include the Broadway-bound Rock 'n' Roll
Rock 'n' Roll (play)
Rock 'n' Roll is a play by British playwright Tom Stoppard that premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2006.-Plot summary:The play is concerned with the significance of rock and roll in the emergence of the socialist movement in Eastern Bloc Czechoslovakia between the Prague Spring of...
). But as directed by Jack O'Brien and acted and designed by a stellar team of artisans, Utopia is a major work of theatrical craftsmanship, a luscious advertisement for the singular narrative seductiveness of drama."
The production was nominated for ten Tony Awards and won seven, breaking the Tony record for the most awards given to a play.
Characters and cast
The following table indicates the roles played by the main cast in London, New York, and Moscow, respectively. Several principal actors played multiple roles in each of the three plays.| Actor in London, 2002 | Actor in New York, 2006 | Actor in Moscow, 2007 | Voyage | Shipwreck | Salvage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen Dillane Stephen Dillane Stephen J. Dillane is an English actor. He won a Tony Award for his lead performance in Tom Stoppard's play The Real Thing.-Early life:... |
Brían F. O'Byrne Brían F. O'Byrne Brían Francis O'Byrne is an Irish actor who works mostly in the United States. He was born in Mullagh, County Cavan.O'Byrne first attracted notice for his performances in the Martin McDonagh plays The Beauty Queen of Leenane as Pato Dooley and The Lonesome West... |
Ilya Isaev | Alexander Herzen Alexander Herzen Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen was a Russian pro-Western writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism", and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism... |
Alexander Herzen | Alexander Herzen |
| Eve Best Eve Best Eve Best is an English actress, best known for her roles as Dr. O'Hara in the Showtime television series Nurse Jackie, as Wallis Simpson in the 2010 film The King's Speech, and Dolley Madison in the 2011 American Experience television special about that First Lady.-Early life and education:Best... |
Jennifer Ehle Jennifer Ehle Jennifer Ehle is an American actress of stage and screen. She is known for her BAFTA winning role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice.-Early life:... |
Nelly Uvarova | Liubov Bakunin | Natalie Herzen | Malwida von Meysenbug Malwida von Meysenbug Malwida von Meysenbug was a German writer, who was a friend of Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Wagner. She also met the French writer Romain Rolland in Rome in 1890, and is the author of Memories of an Idealist. She published the first volume anonymously in 1869.Von Meysenbug was born at Kassel,... |
| Will Keen Will Keen Will Keen is an English actor. He is also a trustee of the James Menzies Kitchen Award, an award set up for young theatre directors in memory of the director with whom Keen collaborated early in his career... |
Billy Crudup Billy Crudup William Gaither "Billy" Crudup is an American actor of film and stage. He is well known for his roles as guitarist Russell Hammond in Almost Famous, Will Bloom in Big Fish, and Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke. He also starred in the 2007 romantic comedy film Dedication, alongside Mandy Moore... |
Evgeny Redko | Vissarion Belinsky Vissarion Belinsky Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky was a Russian literary critic of Westernizing tendency. He was an associate of Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin , and other critical intellectuals... |
Vissarion Belinsky | |
| Guy Henry | Jason Butler Harner Jason Butler Harner Jason Thomas Butler Harner is an American actor.-Biography:Harner was born in Elmira, New York and grew up in suburban Northern Virginia, where he had the opportunity of seeing a handful of plays at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. His middle name Butler is his mother’s maiden name. He graduated... |
Alexey Miasnikov | Ivan Turgenev Ivan Turgenev Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century... |
Ivan Turgenev | Ivan Turgenev |
| Douglas Henshall Douglas Henshall Douglas James Henshall is a Scottish actor probably best known for his role as Professor Nick Cutter in the British science fiction series Primeval.-Early life:... |
Ethan Hawke Ethan Hawke Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role... |
Stepan Morozov | Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,... |
Mikhail Bakunin | Mikhail Bakunin |
| John Carlisle John Carlisle (actor) John Carlisle is a British television and stage actor.John Carlisle had regular roles in Emergency - Ward 10, Scotland Yard on ABC, 1957–1958, and the London Weekend Television series New Scotland Yard as Detective Sergeant Ward.He also appeared in the BBC series The Omega Factor as the morally... |
Richard Easton Richard Easton Richard Easton is a Canadian actor. He is best known in for his portrayal of Brian Hammond in the 1970s BBC serial The Brothers.-Biography:... |
Viktor Tsymbal | Alexander Bakunin | Leonty Ibayev | Stanislaw Worcell |
| Charlotte Emmerson | Martha Plimpton Martha Plimpton Martha Campbell Plimpton is an American actress and singer and former model. Plimpton is a screen, stage and television actress. She first appeared as Jonsy in the feature film River Rats before rising to prominence in the Richard Donner film The Goonies portraying the character Stef... |
Ramilya Iskander | Varenka Bakunin | Natasha Tuchkova | Mary Sutherland |
Awards and nominations
Awards
- 2007 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Play
- 2007 New York Drama Critics' Circle Best Play
- 2007 Tony Award for Best Play
External links
- The New York Times Reading list for The Coast of Utopia
- Official website of Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage at the Lincoln Center Theater
- Overview of London's production
- 'Radical Comedy', review of The Coast of Utopia in the Oxonian Review