Lincoln Center Announces Dates for The Coast of Utopia Trilogy

Lincoln Center Theater has announced definitive plans for its upcoming staging of Tom Stoppard's trilogy The Coast of Utopia at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. Part One—Voyage is scheduled to begin performances on October 17 and open on November 5, Part Two—Shipwreck will start on December 5 and open on December 21, and Part Three—Salvage is set to begin on January 30 and have its official bow on February 15.

Beginning in mid-19th century Russia during the repressive reign of Tsar Nicholas I, The Coast of Utopia spans a period of 30 years as it tells the 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. Part One—Voyage begins in 1833 and is set in the Russian countryside as well as in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Part Two—Shipwreck begins 13 years later outside Moscow and follows the characters' exile to Paris, Dresden and Nice. Part Three—Salvage takes place over a period of 12 years in London and Geneva.

The Coast of Utopia, which premiered at London's National Theatre in 2002, is scheduled to run through March 11. During the final three and a half weeks of the production's run, audiences will have the opportunity to see all three parts in succession. On three Saturdays—February 24, March 3 and March 10—theatergoers will be able to see all three parts in one-day marathons beginning at 11am. Jack O'Brien directs.