The Coast of Utopia closes today

By Amy Somensky May 13, 2007, 1:08 GMT

Beginning in mid-19th century Russia during the repressive reign of Tsar Nicholas I, Tom Stoppard’s sweeping epic spans a period of thirty years as it tells the panoramic story of a group of Russian intellectuals, headed by the radical theorist and editor Alexander Herzen, the novelist Ivan Turgenev, the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky and the aristocrat-turned-anarchist Michael Bakunin, who lead a band of like-minded countrymen in a revolutionary movement in ...more

New York: Lincoln Center's production of Tom Stoppard's epic trilogy of plays, The Coast of Utopia plays its final performance today at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.

The cast of the trilogy comprises Billy Crudup as Vissarion Belinsky, Richard Easton as Alexander Bakunin, Jennifer Ehle as Liubov Bakunin, Josh Hamilton as Nicholas Ogarev, David Harbour as Nicholas Stankevich, Jason Butler Harner as Ivan Turgenev, Ethan Hawke as Michael Bakunin, Amy Irving as Varvara Bakunin, Brían F. O'Byrne as Alexander Herzen, and Martha Plimpton as Varenka Bakunin. 

Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia comprises three parts - Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage. The first part of the production opened at the Vivian Beaumont on November 27, 2006 with the other two opening on December 21, 2006 and February 18, 2007. All three parts ran consecutively and during the last weeks audiences were able to see all three parts in marathon.

The creative team includes direction by Jack O'Brien, set design by Bob Crowley, set design by Scott Pask, costume design by Catherine Zuber, lighting design by Natasha Katz, Brian MacDevitt, and Kenneth Posner, and music and sound design by Mark Bennett. 

Beginning in mid-19th century Russia during the repressive reign of Tsar Nicholas I, Tom Stoppard’s sweeping epic spans a period of thirty years as it tells the panoramic story of a group of Russian intellectuals, headed by the radical theorist and editor Alexander Herzen, the novelist Ivan Turgenev, the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky and the aristocrat-turned-anarchist Michael Bakunin, who lead a band of like-minded countrymen in a revolutionary movement in which they strive to change and fix a political system by using their minds as their only weapon.

The series was first seen in 2002 at London's National Theatre.