Literature & Revolution: Tom Stoppard's 'The Coast of Utopia'

Wren, Celia, Commonweal

An ice-colored likeness of St. Basil's, the famed Russian church, seems to float in the air during part of Voyage, the first installment of Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia at Lincoln Center Theater. The onion domes glitter, apparently molded of frost, as if the Snow Queen had invaded Moscow.

It's a restrained but beautiful image, evidence of the craftsmanship underlying this superbly controlled production. And yet, it's the ideas, not the scenic elements, that really lend luster to The Coast of Utopia. Stoppard's sprawling epic, consisting of three plays, Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage (running in repertory through mid-May) conjures up the turbulent world of nineteenth-century Russian thinkers. Over the course of the trilogy, the seventy-plus characters--including anarchist Michael Bakunin, socialist …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Literature & Revolution: Tom Stoppard's 'The Coast of Utopia'. Contributors: Wren, Celia - Author. Magazine title: Commonweal. Volume: 134. Issue: 5 Publication date: March 9, 2007. Page number: 17. © 1999 Commonweal Foundation. COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale Group.

This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.