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Shipwreck, Part 2 of Coast of Utopia, Opens Dec. 21
By: BWW News Desk Dec. 15, 2006
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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.
Photo--Jennifer Ehle and Brian F. O'Byrne, by Paul Kolnik
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