Shipwreck, Part 2 of Coast of Utopia, Opens Dec. 21

By: BWW News Desk Dec. 15, 2006

Shipwreck, Part Two of Tom Stoppard's three-part play, The Coast of Utopia, opens on Thursday, December 21 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. This Lincoln Center Theater production, directed by Jack O'Brien, began previews on December 6.

The action of The Coast of Utopia, which premiered at London's National Theatre in 2002, begins in 1833 with Part One - Voyage, set in the Russian countryside as well as in Moscow and St. Petersburg. (Voyage is currently in previews and opens on Monday, Nov. 27.) Part Two - Shipwreck begins thirteen years later outside Moscow and follows the characters' exile to Paris, Dresden and Nice. Part Three - Salvage, which begins previews on Jan. 30, takes place over a period of twelve years in London and Geneva.

This American premiere is performed by a company of over 44 actors lead by Billy Crudup, Richard Easton, Jennifer Ehle, Josh Hamilton, David Harbour, Jason Butler Harner, Ethan Hawke, Amy Irving, Brían F. O'Byrne and Martha Plimpton, will be directed by Jack O'Brien.

"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 (Brían F. O'Byrne), the novelist Ivan Turgenev (Jason Butler Harner), the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky (Billy Crudup), the poet Nicholas Ogarev (Josh Hamilton) and the aristocrat-turned-anarchist Michael Bakunin (Ethan Hawke), 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. Richard Easton, Jennifer Ehle, David Harbour, Amy Irving and Martha Plimpton will be featured in multiple roles throughout the three-part work," as press notes state.

The Coast of Utopia also features Bianca Amato, Mia Barron, Larry Bull, Denis Butkus, Michael Carlsen, Amanda Leigh Cobb, Anthony Cochrane, Patricia Conolly, David Cromwell, Adam Dannheiser, Matt Dickson, Aaron Krohn, Felicity LaFortune, Jenn Lyon, David Manis, Andrew McGinn, Kellie Overbey, Scott, Parkinson, David Pittu, Annie Purcell, Erika Rolfsrud, Brian Sgambati, Robert Stanton, Eric Sheffer Stevens, Baylen Thomas and David Christopher Wells.

Lincoln Center Theater is mounting the three parts of the trilogy individually, rehearsing and performing each part in turn as the next opens. During the final three and one-half weeks of the production's run audiences will have the opportunity to see all three parts in succession. And on three Saturdays -- February 24, March 3 and March 10 - theatergoers will be able to see all three - Voyage, Shipwreck and Salvage - in one-day marathons beginning at 11am.

The Coast of Utopia has sets by Bob Crowley and Scott Pask, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Brian MacDevitt ( Voyage), Kenneth Posner (Shipwreck) and Natasha Katz (Salvage) and original music and sound design by Mark Bennett.

The Coast of Utopia is the third partnership between playwright Tom Stoppard and director Jack O'Brien following their collaboration on LCT's award-winning productions of Hapgood and The Invention of Love. LCT also produced Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. Director Jack O'Brien returns to Lincoln Center Theater where he last directed the Tony Award winning production of Shakespeare's Henry IV, and, in addition to his work with Tom Stoppard, Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, Tina Howe's Pride's Crossing and Richard Nelson's Two Shakespearean Actors.

Part Three - Salvage begins previews on January 30 and opens on February 15.

The Coast of Utopia is scheduled to run through Saturday, March 10.

Tickets to all three parts of The Coast of Utopia, priced from $65 to $100, are available at the Lincoln Center Theater box office, at telecharge.com or by visiting www.lct.org. For more information visit www.coastofutopia.com.

Photo--Jennifer Ehle and Brian F. O'Byrne, by Paul Kolnik

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