So much good commentary is available online about Tom Stoppard’s trilogy, Coast of Utopia, so I won’t spend time here rehashing the larger context of the play and its subject matter. Instead I’ll be blatantly bloggish and personal and just say that I was in an altered state through the entire 12 hour marathon. (Still am.) Stoppard isn’t everyone’s cup of tea–during the breaks I overheard people who thought it was a bit “wordy” or that they had fallen asleep through some of it–but he is definitely mine. Why stop at 12 hours? I could do 100. More! No other playwright I know blends the history of Western ideas with theatrical intensity like Stoppard. And there are so many large arc ideas in this trilogy, ones that I care about deeply.
Besides, theatrical marathons appeal to my love of excess. Some of my best altered state experiences have happened in that context. Anybody else out there remember sitting through the 12 hour version of The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin by Robert Wilson back in the 70s? Close friends and families still roll their eyes at my devotion to Matthew Barney’s Cremaster (I watched it from stem to stern 4 times) and I have never ending enjoyment watching the 6 hour film, Best of Youth.
AGREED!
Such an amazing experience. Glad we got to share it.
Also worth noting, you remain one of the only people in my life who will willingly subject themselves to 6-12 hour plays and films like Best Of Youth and Pride & Prejudice. I could absolutely see Coast of Utopia AT LEAST five more times and not be satiated.
Amen to excess!
God love ya Kellin! Here’s to years more of this kind of fun.