America has no viable tradition in a theater of ideas. Our stages prefer settings in the bedroom rather than in the coffee house, dramas about sex rather than dramas about the viability of socialism. There is an exception to this rule, however: the imported plays of Tom Stoppard.
Only Tony Kushner has been able to write produced epic theater projects with a consistency matching Stoppard's work. But Kushner chooses topical themes; Stoppard tells his story on the larger canvases of history and philosophy. His latest project, a nine-hour trilogy called The Coast of Utopia, is perhaps his most ambitious drama yet.
Stoppard's latest plays look at the development of ideas and philosophy in the nineteenth century, at Romanticism and Idealism, the Utopia of his title. It was felt by many that Russia was a special case, that the problems of her society still based on medieval serfdom, would not be solved by reference to Western Europe. The starting point for The Coast of Utopia's first play, Voyage is the Decembrist revolt of 1825. The hard line reaction by the Tsar set up a society of censorship, banishment and imprisonment of any who opposed him.
Read full review by Lizzie Loveridge.
Lincoln Center Theater hosts the American premiere of the trilogy (official website), running the plays both individually and in marathon succession. It's probably the biggest theatrical event in this country since Angels in America (which I found profoundly disappointing until rescued by a brilliant film recreation on HBO). The marathons in February and March, 2007, in fact, are already sold out, bringing to mind the Eugene O'Neill marathons of the 1930s. There may be a larger audience for theater with this stature of ambition than producers realize.
What is unfortunate, of course, is that Stoppard and Kushner do not head theatrical movements so much as establish the exception that proves the rule. In our star-oriented culture, a very small number of artists always slip through the cracks whose work goes against the mainstream style. The fact remains: there is no viable tradition of a theater of ideas in this country.
In the 1980s, when I had perfected the art of living on grants, I had a very good track record, receiving over half the grants I applied for. One grant I did not get, however, was to found a theater of ideas called I.T. or Idea Theater. An actor in town, Peter LeSeur, was renting an abandoned mansion, which he hoped to turn into an art center. He offered me space in which to develop a theater company -- rent free, later paying rent as a fraction of the theater's income. Peter was another artist with no business sense ha ha! At any rate, I put together the proposal and applied for grant support, which I didn't get. I wonder if and how my life would have changed if I had and thus had gone on to found this company. I suspect it would have lasted a few years and then folded.
I doubt if the Stoppard trilogy will take the country by storm the way Kushner's epic did. AIDS is a more commercial subject matter than idealistic 19th century philosophy. Yet it's good that even these exceptions to the rule show up now and again to remind us that more serious work is getting done than popular culture suggests. Ethan Hawke, cast in the trilogy, was quoted on NPR this morning as saying that it's a rare treat to be in such elevated material. Typically, he said, the nominees for best film in Hollywood can be understood by any 12-year-old.
NPR story.
Interview with Tom Stoppard.
Interview with Ethan Hawke.
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