Part One � Voyage

Jason Butler Harner and Amy Irving will join the cast of the Lincoln Center's American premiere of Tom Stoppard's trilogy, The Coast of Utopia, playing at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre from the 17 Oct 2006 - 11 Mar 2007.

Directed by Jack O'Brien , The Coast of Utopia will have a company of over 30 actors playing over 70 roles including the previously announced Billy Crudup, Richard Easton, Jennifer Ehle, Josh Hamilton, David Harbour, Ethan Hawke, Bian F. O'Byrne and Martha Plimpton.

Jason Butler Harner, who will play the novelist Ivan Turgenev, appeared in the LCT production of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme. Other New York stage work includes The Paris Letter (Drama Desk Nomination), Hedda Gabler (Obie Award), The Ruby Sunrise, Crimes of the Heart, Juno and the Paycock and Experiment with an Air Pump.

Amy Irving will play two characters in different parts of the play, Varvara Bakunin (the mother of Ethan Hawke's character, Michael Bakunin) and Maria Ogarev (the estranged wife of Josh Hamiton's character, the poet Nicholas Ogarev). Although best known for her film work, she appears regularly on the New York stage. She starred on Broadway in The Three Sisters, Broken Glass Heartbreak House and Amadeus.

Further casting to be announced.

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 writers, headed by the radical theorist and editor Alexander Herzen (Brian F. O'Byrne), the novelist Ivan Turgenev (Jason Butler Harner), the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky (Billy Crudup), the aristocrat-turned-anarchist Michael Bakunin (Ethan Hawke) and the poet Nicholas Ogarev (Josh Hamilton), 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.

The action of The Coast of Utopia, which had its world premiere 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.

Part Two - Shipwreck, begins thirteen years later outside Moscow and follows the characters' exile to Paris, Dresden and Nice.

Part Three - Salvage, takes place over a period of twelve years in London and Geneva.

Lincoln Center Theater will mount the three parts of The Coast of Utopia individually, rehearsing and performing each part in turn as the next opens.

During the final three and one-half weeks of the production's run audiences will have the opportunity to see all three parts in succession. And on three Saturdays - 24 Feb 2007, 3 Mar 2007 and 10 Mar 2007 � theatergoers will be able to see all three - Voyage, Shipwreck and Salvage - in one-day marathons beginning at 11am.

The schedule for The Coast of Utopia is:

• Part One � Voyage
  Previews: Tue 17 Oct 2006
  Opens: Sun 5 Nov 2006
• Part Two � Shipwreck
  Previews: Tue 5 Dec 2006
  Opens: Thu 21 Dec 2006
• Part Three � Salvage
  Previews: Tue 30 Jan 2007
  Opens: Thu 15 Feb 2007

The Coast of Utopia is the third partnership between playwright Tom Stoppard and director Jack O'Brien following their collaboration on LCT's award-winning productions of 'Hapgood' and 'The Invention of Love'. LCT also produced Tom Stoppard's 'Arcadia'.