I believe you have missed the underlying humanist upheaval Stoppard has allowed to occur in 'Coast of Utopia'. The characters are not political naysayers, but real people trying to find they're national, personal, and artistic identities. Much like our African American youth searches for cultural identity in the kiddy pool of their free history but is force-fed a censor-packaged consumable gangster-rap sustenance, the revolutionary youth in Stoppard's play searches for it's own identity in an culture that force feeds them a regurgitated version of itself. I found myself deeply moved by the statements made in the play (direct quotes in fact) about art and philosophy’s relation to art. I was not impressed with the Jane Austin romance plot- but found the lead's futile philosophical meanderings amidst a greater social upheaval spoke directly to me. It said, "Shut up and DO," "Stop talking and start DOING." "Stop writing love poetry and start LOVING." "Stop theorizing and start TRAIL BLAZING." I'll be there for the next two installments, not because this play made me feel smart like some intellectual elitist, but because I saw myself exposed and explored in these characters, exactly what you implied is the soul gift of theatre over other art forms. If you have found a dead end at the conclusion of 'Coast of Utopia', then I have to speculate that you were going the wrong way on that street. P.S. The only thing I regret is (as with most theatre) I felt like the youngest person in the audience, and I'm almost thirty.
Jerrod Bogard
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