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Amy Irving and Jason Butler Harner Join The Coast of Utopia

By: Jul. 25, 2006
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Oscar-nominated film and theatre star Amy Irving and theatre veteran Jason Butler Harner have signed onto the cast of Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia, which is set to run in three parts at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre from October of 2006 through March of 2007.

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Irving (A Safe Harbor for Elizabeth Bishop, Oscar nomination for the film Yentl) and Harner (The Ruby Sunrise, The Paris Letter) join a star-studded cast that also includes Billy Crudup, Richard Easton, Jennifer Ehle, Josh Hamilton, David Harbour, Ethan Hawke, Brían F. O'Byrne and Martha Plimpton.

"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," state press notes for the show, which will feature more than 30 actors in 70 roles.

Irving has been cast as Bakunin's mother and and the wife of poet Nicholas Ogarev, while Harner will play Turgenev. O'Byrne will play Herzen, with Hawke as Bakunin, Crudup as Belinsky and Hamilton will play poet Nicholas Ogarev. Easton, Ehle, Plimpton and Harbour will play various roles.

Voyage will begin previews on October 17th and open November 5th, Shipwreck will begin previews on December 5th and open on December 21st and Salvage will begin performances on January 30th, 2007, and open on February 15th. In addition to the separate runs of the plays, The Coast of Utopia will be performed successively in all three parts on Saturday, February 24th, March 3rd and March 10th. On each day, Voyage, Shipwreck and Salvage will be presented in marathon form beginning at 11 AM.

Tony Award-winner Jack O'Brien (Hairspray, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Henry IV) is set to direct the plays, which are by the acclaimed author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Arcadia, The Real Thing, Jumpers and more.

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. Part Two - Shipwreck, begins thirteen years later outside Moscow and follows the characters' exile to Paris, Dresden and Nice. Part Three - Salvage, takes place over a period of twelve years in London and Geneva.

The Coast of Utupia will have sets by Bob Crowley and Scott Pask, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner and Natasha Katz and original music and sound design by Mark Bennett.

This fall, in addition to The Coast of Utopia, LCT will present Sarah Ruhl's new play The Clean House, directed by Bill Rauch in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater beginning Thursday, October 5. Current Productions include The Light in the Piazza at the Vivian Beaumont, Richard Greenberg's The House in Town in previews at the Mitzi E. Newhouse, and Awake and Sing! at Broadway's Belasco Theatre.

Visit www.lincolncenter.org for more information on LCT.







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