| The Coast of Utopia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | Tom Stoppard |
| Characters | Alexander Herzen Vissarion Belinsky Ivan Turgenev Mikhail Bakunin |
| Date premiered | 22 June 2002 |
| Place premiered | Olivier Theatre London, England |
| Original language | English |
| Series | The Coast of Utopia
|
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | pre-revolution Russia |
The Coast of Utopia is a 2002trilogy ofplays:Voyage,Shipwreck, andSalvage, written byTom Stoppard with focus on the philosophical debates in pre-revolution Russia between 1833 and 1866. It was the recipient of the 2007Tony Award for Best Play. The title comes from a chapter inAvrahm Yarmolinsky's bookRoad to Revolution: A Century of Russian Radicalism (1959).
The trilogy, nine hours in total, premiered withVoyage on 22 June 2002 at theNational Theatre'sOlivier auditorium in repertory, directed byTrevor Nunn. The openings ofShipwreck andSalvage followed on 8 July, and 19 July, completing its run on 23 November 2002. In 2006, directed byJack O'Brien, the plays debuted on Broadway at theVivian Beaumont Theater atLincoln Center, New York City, where it closed on 13 May 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 byYukio Ninagawa.
Directed byTrevor Nunn, the trilogy premiered withVoyage at theOlivier Theatre in London on 22 June 2002, followed byShipwreck andSalvage with a six-month run ended on 23 November 2002.[1]
Reviewing the play inThe Guardian, drama criticMichael Billington wrote, "Tom Stoppard'sThe 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."[2] 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."[3]
The trilogy's Broadway debut was directed byJack O'Brien at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York City. The cast includedBrían F. O'Byrne,Richard Easton,Jennifer Ehle,Billy Crudup,Ethan Hawke,Josh Hamilton,Martha Plimpton,David Harbour,Jason Butler Harner andAmy Irving.[4]Viewed as "the season's ultimate snob ticket",[4] the production ran from November 2006 to May 2007 with a combined total of 124 performances.
In his review forThe 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-boundRock '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."[4]
The production was nominated for tenTony Awards and won seven, breaking the Tony record for the most awards given to a play.[5][6]
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.
| Role inVoyage | Role inShipwreck | Role inSalvage | Actor in London, 2002 | Actor in New York, 2006 | Actor in Moscow, 2007 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Herzen | Stephen Dillane | Brían F. O'Byrne | Ilya Isaev | ||
| Liubov Bakunin | Natalie Herzen | Malwida von Meysenbug | Eve Best | Jennifer Ehle | Nelly Uvarova |
| Vissarion Belinsky | n/a | Will Keen | Billy Crudup | Evgeny Redko | |
| Ivan Turgenev | Guy Henry | Jason Butler Harner | Alexey Miasnikov | ||
| Mikhail Bakunin | Douglas Henshall | Ethan Hawke | Stepan Morozov | ||
| Alexander Bakunin | Leonty Ibayev | Stanislaw Worcell | John Carlisle | Richard Easton | Viktor Tsymbal |
| Varenka Bakunin | Natasha Tuchkova | Natasha Tuchkova Ogareva | Charlotte Emmerson | Martha Plimpton | Ramilya Iskander |
The play is well known for including a cast of more than 70 characters, many based on historical figures of the period.
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Laurence Olivier Awards | Best New Play | Tom Stoppard | Nominated |
| Best Set Design | William Dudley | Nominated | ||
| Best Costume Design | William Dudley | Nominated | ||
| Best Lighting Design | David Hersey | Nominated |
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Tom Stoppard | Won |
| Best Direction of a Play | Jack O'Brien | Won | ||
| Best Leading Actor in a Play | Brian F. O'Byrne | Nominated | ||
| Best Featured Actor in a Play | Billy Crudup | Won | ||
| Ethan Hawke | Nominated | |||
| Best Featured Actress in a Play | Jennifer Ehle | Won | ||
| Martha Plimpton | Nominated | |||
| Best Scenic Design of a Play | Bob Crowley and Scott Pask | Won | ||
| Best Costume Design of a Play | Catherine Zuber | Won | ||
| Best Lighting Design of a Play | Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner, and Natasha Katz | Won | ||
| Drama Desk Awards[7] | Outstanding Play | Won | ||
| Outstanding Director of a Play | Jack O'Brien | Won | ||
| Outstanding Actor in a Play | Brian F. O'Byrne | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Billy Crudup | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Martha Plimpton | Won | ||
| Outstanding Music for a Play | Mark Bennett | Won | ||
| Outstanding Set Design of a Play | Bob Crowley and Scott Pask | Won | ||
| Outstanding Costume Design | Catherine Zuber | Won | ||
| Outstanding Lighting Design | Kenneth Posner, Brian MacDevitt, and Natasha Katz | Won | ||
| Outstanding Sound Design | Mark Bennett | Nominated | ||
| Drama League Awards[8] | Distinguished Production of a Play | Won | ||
| Distinguished Performance | Billy Crudup | Nominated | ||
| Ethan Hawke | Nominated | |||
| Brian F. O’Byrne | Nominated | |||
| New York Drama Critics Circle Awards[9] | Best Play | Tom Stoppard | Won | |
| Outer Critics Circle Awards[10] | Outstanding New Broadway Play | Won | ||
| Outstanding Director of a Play | Jack O'Brien | Won | ||
| Outstanding Actor in a Play | Brian F. O'Byrne | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Actress in a Play | Jennifer Ehle | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Billy Crudup | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Martha Plimpton | Won | ||
| Outstanding Set Design | Bob Crowley and Scott Pask | Won | ||
| Outstanding Costume Design | Catherine Zuber | Won | ||
| Outstanding Lighting Design | Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner, and Natasha Katz | Won | ||