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NEW YORK -- How do revolutionary thinkers keep themselves occupied when they're not forming complex, cogent theories on politics, culture and social oppression? Apparently they grapple with some of the same conundrums facing the rest of us.
Voyage, the first part of Tom Stoppard's historical drama The Coast of Utopia, traced the philosophical and romantic yearnings of young intellectuals frustrated with Czar Nicholas I's Russia. In Shipwreck (*** 1/2 out of four), the equally spellbinding second chapter, we get more insight into the life of one of them: Alexander Herzen, who between the 1830s and 1850s evolved from an anti-czarist exile into a celebrated writer, then back to an exile.
It's plain to see why Stoppard, whose Coast trilogy will conclude next year with Salvage, was drawn to this passionate and eloquent man, whose own voyage was made stormy by scandal and heartache. Shipwreck, which opened Thursday at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater, also focuses on Herzen's wife, Natalie, who persevered with him for years before succumbing to tragedy.
Alexander is played by Brian F. O'Byrne, who introduced the character in Voyage, and Natalie by Jennifer Ehle, who had another role in that previous installment. Both actors are even more impressive here -- no mean feat for the superb O'Byrne, who as the young Herzen enjoyed the cream of Voyage's richly textured speeches. In Shipwreck, we get to know the character as a husband and father, and we learn of his troubles and joys in both arenas.
Stoppard's piquant, probing dialogue allows Herzen to expound wittily, and movingly, on intellectual matters and matters of the heart, which are by no means mutually exclusive here. Ehle makes a convincing soul mate and sparring partner, relaying Natalie's fierce emotions and convictions with a stringent intensity.
Other members of Coast's luminous cast get less stage time but shine whenever they're on. Vissarion Belinsky, the critic played by Billy Crudup, has lost some of his fetching awkwardness to maturity, but Crudup's performance retains its brisk intelligence and boyish zeal. Richard Easton and Amy Irving, who played the prosperous, arrogant Bakunins in Voyage, amuse as a Russian counsel general and a sultry, conniving matron.
Ethan Hawke is once again overzealous but compelling as the Bakunins' rebellious son, Michael, who with Josh Hamilton's Nicholas Ogarev and Jason Butler Harner's Ivan Turgenev round out Herzen and Belinsky's vital inner circle. David Harbour also stands out as German poet Georg Herwegh, Herzen's friend and eventual rival.
Jack O'Brien's robust direction and Bob Crowley and Scott Pask's stunning set design serve everyone well. True, Stoppard's script would sound glorious if recited by students in a dingy classroom, but to see such style and substance merge with spectacle is a rare treat, on Broadway or anywhere.
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