The Coast of Utopia

‘Shipwreck’

Cast of Characters

In Sokolovo, near Moscow:

Alexander Herzen, a radical writer… (age 34 in 1846)

Natalie Herzen, his wife… (age 29 in 1846)

Sasha Herzen, their son… (age 7 in 1846)

Kolya Herzen, their younger son… (age 3 in 1846)

Nurse, a household serf

Nicholas Ogarev, a poet… (age 34 in 1846)

Ivan Turgenev, a writer… (age 28 in 1846)

Timothy Granovsky, a historian… (age 33 in 1846)

Nicholas Ketscher, a doctor… (age 40 in 1846)

Konstantin Aksakov, a Slavophile… (age 29 in 1846)

Policeman

In Paris:

Vissarion Belinsky, a literary critic… (age 35 in 1846)

Madame Haag, Herzen’s Mother

Jean-Marie, a French servant

George Herwegh, a radical German poet… (age 29 in 1846)

Emma Herwegh, his wife

Shop Boy

Nicholas Sazonov, a Russian émigré activist (age 34 in 1846)

Michael Bakunin, a Russian émigré activist

Karl Marx, aithor of The Communist Manifesto

Natasha Tuchkov, Natalie’s friend (age 17 in 1846)

Benoit, a French servant

Maria Ogarev, Ogarev’s estranged wife (age 29 in 1846)

Franz Otto, a lawyer in Dresden, Saxony

Leonty Ibayev, Russian Consul General in Nice, Italy

Rosa, an Italian maid

Marianne on the Barricades

Servants, Revolutionaries, Street People, etc.

Time: 1846-1852

Place:

Act One: Sokolovo, a gentleman’s estate in Moscow; Salbrunn, Germany; La Place de la Concorde, Paris; Herzen’s Apartments, Paris; A Boulevard outside the Herzen apartment buliding

Scenes:

1. Summer 1846: Soklovo Garden (15 miles from Moscow) (122-46)

2. July 1847: Salzbrunn, Germany: a watering shack in a spa (147-49)

3. July 1847 Place de la Concorde, Paris (151-64)

4. September 1847: Herzen’s luxurious apartment on the Avenue Marigny, Paris (151-64)

5. March 1848: Place de la Concorde, Paris (164-68)

6. May 15, 1848: Herzen’s new apartment near the newly completed Arc d’Triomphe (168-173)

7. June 1848: A Parisian boulevard with a shirtless beggar leaning on a crutch. (174-75)

8. June 21, 1848: A Parisian boulevard with a shirtless beggar (still) leaning on a crutch. (175-77)

9. June 27, 1848: Herzen’s apartment. The Beggar is still visible. (177-180)

10. September 1847 reprise (see scene 4) (180-82)

1. Summer 1846: Soklovo Garden (15 miles from Moscow) (122-46)

· Ogarev is reading out loud to Natalie Gogol’s Selected Passages from a Correspondence with Friends in The Contemporary; Turgenev is sleeping in the hammock; Herzen and Granovsky are off gathering mushrooms.

· Ogarev and Natalie discuss how ‘grown-up-ness’ has caught up with them: Turgenev is hopelessly infatuated with an opera singer in Paris; Ogarev’s wife has left him for a Parisian painter; Natalie and Alexander no longer feel the passion of the first years of their marriage.

· Kolya’s deafness: what happens if his thoughts have no words? (133)

· Herzen and Granovsky arrive with one mushroom, arguing about the immortality of the soul; Ketscher brings coffee which Herzen will not drink.

· Aksakov enters in Slavophile costume and is roundly abused by Herzen (137-40)

· And the political debate has begun: Ketscher claims that Russia has contributed one idea to Western thought: the intelligentsia, and Herzen abuses him for his belief in ‘The Spirit of History’ (Hegel). He derides obeying any ideology. Why should people obey anyone else. Granovsky is uneasy about the growth of a bourgeois middle class but he fears the rise of a proletariat: “The workers will smash civilization…” heren insists that the people can be good if left alone, even without God. (140-43)

· Natalie nervously announces that a policeman has arrived! But he has come with good news: Count Orlov has given the Herzens permission to travel abroad (ostensibly to obtain medical care for Kolya).

· As a storm comes in, everyone runs to look for Kolya. Ogarev and Sasha come in with the boy who responds to the thunder…

2. July 1847: Salzbrunn, Germany: a watering shack in a spa (147-49)

· Belinsky has just written his ‘Letter to Gogol’, and Turgenev argues with him about why he should even bother. Does art have to tell people what to think? Does it have to push a social message?

· Belinsky insists, “Yes.” In Russia literature alone can advance civilization.

3. July 1847 Place de la Concorde, Paris (151-64)

· Belinsky and Turgenev stand in ‘the most beautiful city square in the world’ ; Belinsky is eyeing a red dressing gown in a store window.

4. September 1847: Herzen’s luxurious apartment on the Avenue Marigny, Paris (151-64)

· Belinsky, Turgenev, Herzen, Natalie, Madame Haag, Saha, Kolya, Herwegh, Emma, and Sazonov are all dressed a la Parisenne, drinking champagne and eating hors d’oeuvres while Sasha and Kolya unwrap gifts. Everyone has gathered to see off Belinsky at the train station. Belinsky has purchased his silk dressing gown.

· Herzen: The chandelier says, “Herzen is our first bourgeois.”

· Bakunin arrives: “The Russians are here!”

· Belinsky lambasts Parisian culture and explains why he is returning home: Russia even with the censorship is the place where writing means something. (155)

· All toast, “Russia!”

· Bakunin predicts that the Russian Revolution is coming soon.

· Herzen explains why that will not happen anytime soon: There must be a European revolution first, and in Paris, the liberals (Ledru-Rollins and Louis Blanc) believe in “Virtue by decree”, not freedom.

· Bakunin assures all that the revolution will be in Poland!

· The focus turns to Herwegh, whose wife is massaging his brow… Herzen and Bakunin comment upon Herwegh’s romantic exploits and hypochondria. Natalie takes offense.

· Bakunin declares, “Liberty for each and equality for all!” Herzen reproaches him for using pure rhetoric that means nothing in the any practical sense. They debate whether freedom can exist in a collective. Can being part of a collective benefit interest of the individual? (160-63)

· Everyone starts talking over each other: Bakunin: “Start by destroying everything. The ideas will follow.” Belinsky: Our problem is serfdom. Enough utopias. Bakunin: The Poles and Slavs will unite in revolution! (163)

· The adults all exit to the cabs, leaving Kolya who is playing with his top and, again, he senses the thunder. (163)

· Louis-Phillipe’s monarchy falls on February 24, 1848.

5. March 1848: Place de la Concorde, Paris (164-68)

· Bakunin flourishes a red flag. Marx is carrying his printed Manifesto. Neither of them has met a member of the proletariat (until now). Turgenev translates for Marx.

· Bakunin needs money to go to Poland to plan the invasion of Russia.

· Emma and George Herwegh enter, dressed for revolution. Marx objects. There should be no meddling on the part of the adventurists! Let the fight be decided between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.

· Bakunin: Revolution is the Absolute we pursued at Pemukhino.

6. May 15, 1848: Herzen’s new apartment near the newly completed Arc d’Triomphe (168-173)

· Natalie and her new friend, Natasha (19) are dressed in tri-color, soaking wet and in ‘ecstatic friendship’! Madame Haag: “So this is a republic!”

· Herzen on French servants: You can’t sell them, and nothing prepares you for their aristocratic condescension!

· Sazonov declares that the revolution will succeed not only in France but in Austria and Prussia as well. The Tsar will be forced to bring progressives like himself and Herzen into the government!

· Herzen is not so sanguine. He fears the liberal French government will use violence to put down the workers for disrupting parliament. The bourgeoisie should fear for its neck instead. Turgenev insists that the French are too civilized for that. (171)

· Herwegh and Emma return from Germany, humbled.

7. June 1848: A Parisian boulevard with a shirtless beggar leaning on a crutch. (174-75)

· Natalie and Natasha try to comfort Herwegh who still stings from the humiliation of his participation in the failed German revolution.

· Natalie and Natasha praise Madame d’Argoult for risking scandal to pursue her love for the great concert pianist Liszt. Geroges Sand: “To follow your love wherever it leads you! To let love be your guide to the greater good!”

· Thunder!

8. June 21, 1848: A Parisian boulevard with a shirtless beggar (still) leaning on a crutch. (175-77)

· A day later, writing in a café, Turgenev describes the parade of workers confronting the liberal Republic.

· Natalie, Nurse, Kolya, and Mother rush on with Tatia in a perambulator, having witnessed the street fighting.

· The Marseillaise is drowned out out by volleys of rifle fire.

9. June 27, 1848: Herzen’s apartment. The Beggar is still visible. (177-180)

· Kolya is playing with his top stage center.

· Herzen tries to explain to the beggar what went wrong: Bread got left out of the theory. The first revolution was a disappointment, but he can rest assured that universal happiness is certain to eventually be achieved. Hegel said so! Just not for you.

· Herzen and his family have been in hiding in doors for days.

· Herzen: I’m glad it happened. Now the social democrats are exposed for what they are: tyrants. (178)

· He reads in a letter, “Belinsky’s dead!”

10. September 1847 reprise (see scene 4) (180-82)

· Belinsky’s farewell: he is speaking of Turgenev and Dostoevsky, two new great Russian novelists! “We’re a great nation before we are ready.”

· “Ko’ya” speaks his name for the first time.

· Curtain