Synopses & Reviews
The Coast of Utopia is Tom Stoppard's long-awaited and monumental trilogy that explores a group of friends who came of age under the Tsarist autocracy of Nicholas I, and for whom the term intelligentsia was coined. Among them are the anarchist Michael Bakunin, who was to challenge Marx for the soul of the masses; Ivan Turgenev, author of some of the most enduring works in Russian literature; the brilliant, erratic young critic Vissarion Belinsky; and Alexander Herzen, a nobleman's son and the first self-proclaimed socialist in Russia, who becomes the main focus of this drama of politics, love, loss, and betrayal.
In The Coast of Utopia, Stoppard presents an inspired examination of the struggle between romantic anarchy, utopian idealism, and practical reformation in this chronicle of romantics and revolutionaries caught up in a struggle for political freedom in an age of emperors.
Review
"Stoppard's exploration of the life of the mind in mid-19th-century Russia is a timely reminder of why...America's way has always been better than the utopian alternatives." The New York Times
Review
"Stoppard's brilliant, complex and utterly admirable trilogy...is a witty, highly intelligent and humorus masterpiece into twhich the specator dives as if it were a deep adventurous sea, churning up the stormy waters of 19th century history and its philosophical thinkers, political dreamers, revolutionaries and utopians." Verena Winter, Theater Record (UK)
Review
"[A] dazzling, gargantuan epic not unilike some great, sprawling Russian novel for the stage....Stoppard's language sparkles with wit and frequently moving poetry." Oliver Jones, What's On (UK)
Review
"Refreshingly ambitious in its sweep....It's packed with reflections on idealism and political change that still have clout today." Benedict Nightingale, The Times (UK)
Review
"Intelligent, lucid, eloquent and enlivened by the author's wit and eye for the absurd....The Coast of Utopia gives voice to a philosophy of moderation dear to Stoppard's heart: respect for the individual over the collective and hatred for theories of history that sanctify the bloody sacrifice of the present as a necessary step towards some blissful illusory destination." Paul Taylor, Independent (UK)
Review
"A delight in caprice, chance and the unrepeatable moment also makes this the work of a poet." Susannah Clapp, Observer (UK)
Review
"A huge epic, bristling with ideas about art, love, politics, reality, and, as the overall title suggests, utopias....At his best Stoppard brings long-dead people back to witty life, as well as making their philosophies both comprehensible and entertaining as he pleads against the violent, dogmatic imposition of change." Jane Edwards, Time Out (UK)
Review
"Rarely, if ever, has a work so complex achieved such clarity." John Nathan, Jewish Chronicle (UK)
Review
"Contains some of Stoppard's best writing. Nobody in the theatre today can match him for a combination of sinuous argument, intellectual élan, and sheer coruscating wit. The dialogue has a leaping, athletic energy: excitement of the mind and the heart." John Peter, Sunday Times (UK)
Review
"Beautiful....I was happy just luxuriating in the sheer texture of the scenes Stoppard sets before us. Stoppard adores those moments of conjunction when history is like a VIP lounge....The meanings of the play cohere as you watch, not as narrative but as poetry, and keep growing in recollection....His sense of history has [never] been finer fuller than here." Alastair Macaulay, Financial Times (UK)
Synopsis
The Coast of Utopia chronicles the story of romantics and revolutionaries caught up in a struggle for political freedom in an age of emperors.
About the Author
Tom Stoppard's plays include The Real Thing, Arcadia, The Invention of Love, The Coast of Utopia, and Rock 'n' Roll. His screenplays include Empire of the Sun, Enigma, and (with Marc Norman) Shakespeare in Love.