Farewell to UTOPIA

Well, this is it. Last day for the weary travelers of Russian philosophy.

Time flies, no?

This play will be missed.

And I never even got to see it.

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I "ran" the marathon on this, and loved it all, especially Shipwreck. I think it was one of the more amazing theater experiences in my life. I adored Billy Crudup and also Richard Easton and Jennifer Ehle, but thought the acting was uniformly wonderful.

Updated On: 5/13/07 at 10:35 AM

I agree with Kean. Did the marathon and fell in love with the whole experience.

Now if only I hadn't lost my button...

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Up until a few days ago, I thought "Journey's End" was the last part of the Utopia trilogy.

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after seeing a marathon, seeing all three seperately, and reading the plays- i think it is one of most rewarding theatrical experiences I have ever experienced. I will miss it.

Totally manderson. I was inspired to write my thesis paper on Belinsky and his influence on Dostoevsky (What am I doing writing in the past tense? I still have a year left on it!). It showed me a whole new era of literature and philosophy. It's one of the few shows that I can take outside of the theatre and gain something from.

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I was also inspired by these plays to learn about the Russian philosophy of the era. Since seeing them I've basically read anything by Herzen, Belinsky, and Bakunin that i could get my hands on.

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Kat - I'd love to hear that, if you don't mind PMing it to me, as well...

kat,

belinsky fascinates me as well, esp his hair!! when i was talking to crudup after the show, he told me that belinsky's hair in the play was inspired by an actual photo of belinsky.

pretty cool.

crudup was fantastic, as well as jennifer ehle. they were my favorite cast members in utopia.

the production, although not perfect...was such a spectacular experience that i was glad to have seen it. with such a stellar cast, production sets, great effects...i felt very special to have experienced the three parts of the play. a production like utopia will probably never be replicated again.

Alright, here's a few pictures of the actual Belinsky. I know earlier on I found another one much liek the first one posted, but with a slightly different hairstyle, but I can't seem to rediscover it. Anyway, according to Turgenev in his memoirs of Belinsky, the 2nd and 3rd pictures are not an accurate representation of his features, and while I am not quoting exactly, Turgenev was dissapointed that Beilnsky was painted painfully, so much so that he looked like a military general, something not resemblent to the man himself at all.

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I got to be there yesterday for Salvage, after having seen Parts One and Two in the winter! Salvage was so depressing, my least favorite even though overall I'd really enjoyed the trilogy, so it was a really big up when the curtain call came, and the entire cast, including Billy Crudup and Amy Irving--who weren't in this part--emerged. They were grinning, crying, waving fists in the air triumphantly....I hadn't planned to stage-door, but the opportunity to congratulate them after all that and ask them what they were going to do with the rest of their lives was too irresistable. Billy Crudup, as ever, was the friendliest and when I told him he was going to win a Tony, put his hand on my shoulder and told me that his mom and I should start a club! Utopia was such a living. breathing history lesson that I'd love to see this approach tried with other amazing people and periods of the past; that fact that they could pull this off may make that possible....

Kat - The passage you quoted was the point where I started to cry - I had been tearing up at that point but Stoppard makes the poignancy unbearable sometimes.

Rosscoe(au) - the very first scene of each of the three plays is the same: the main character, Alexander Herzen, seated in a dark wooden chair, looking thoughtful, with dark waves thrashing all around him. The chair revolves slowly in a full pivot in place, then sinks into the stage, the waves disappear, and the cast is shown standing in ranks at the back of the stage. The "waves" are created by a huge black silk tarp that is being moved from beneath, and the waves disappear when the scarf is abruptly pulled through a small hole in the stage floor. I was sitting in the mezzanine and on the side so there were also backdrop effects that I didn't see. A good deal of the overall impression in that opening scene was the result of a fascinating musical score which added to the air of mystery and conflict.

Does anyone know if this trilogy was recorded? It seems a shame that such a huge undertaking is completely gone - although that is the nature of theater, I suppose.

Updated On: 5/14/07 at 10:17 AM