Voyage

  THE COAST OF UTOPIA PART I

  Tom Stoppard's other work includes Enter a Free Man, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Real Inspector Hound, Jumpers, Travesties, Night and Day, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (with Andre Previn), After Magritte, Dirty Linen, The Real Thing, Hapgood, Arcadia, Indian Ink and The Invention of Love. His radio plays include: If You're Glad, I'll Be Frank, Albert's Bridge, Where Are They Now?, Artist Descending a Staircase, The Dog It Was That Died and in the Native State. His work for television includes Professional Foul and Squaring the Circle. His film credits include Empire of the Sun, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which he also directed, Shakespeare in Love (with Marc Norman) and Enigma.

  PLAYS

  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead*

  Enter a Free Man*

  The Real Inspector Hound*

  After Magritte*

  Jumpers*

  Travesties*

  Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land*

  Every Good Boy Deserves Favour*

  Night and Day

  Dogg's Hamlet and Cahoot's Macbeth*

  The Real Thing

  Rough Crossing

  Hapgood

  Arcadia

  Indian Ink

  The Invention of Love*

  Shipwreck: The Coast of Utopia Part II*

  Salvage: The Coast of Utopia Part III*

  TELEVISION SCRIPTS

  A Separate Peace

  Teeth

  Another Moon Called Earth

  Neutral Ground

  Professional Foul

  Squaring the Circle

  RADIO PLAYS

  The Dissolution of Dominic Boot

  “M” Is for Moon Among Other Things

  If You're Glad, I'll Be Frank

  Albert's Bridge

  Where Are They Now?

  Artist Descending a Staircase

  The Dog It Was That Died

  In the Native State

  SCREENPLAYS

  Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

  Shakespeare in Love (with Marc Norman)

  FICTION

  Lord Malquist & Mr. Moon

  *Available from Grove Press

  Copyright © 2002 by Tom Stoppard

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

  CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that Voyage: The Coast of Utopia Part I is subject to a royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and all British Commonwealth countries, and all countries covered by the International Copyright Union, the Pan-American Copyright Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such as information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved.

  First-class professional, stock, and amateur applications for permission to perform it, and those other rights stated above, must be made in advance to Peters, Fraser & Dunlop, Drury House, 34-43 Russell Street, London, WC2B 5HA, England, ATTN: Kenneth Ewing, and must pay the requisite fee, whether the play is presented for charity or gain and whether or not admission is charged.

  First published in hardback and paperback in 2002 by Faber and Faber Limited, London, England

  Printed in the United States of America

  FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Stoppard, Tom.

  Voyage / Tom Stoppard.

  p. cm. — (The Coast of Utopia ; pt. 1)

  ISBN 9780802195296

  1. Bakunin, Mikhail Aleksandrovich, 1814-1876—Drama. 2. Herzen, Aleksandr, 1812-1870—Drama. 3. Russians—Germany—Drama. 4. Moscow (Russia)—Drama. 5. Revolutionaries—Drama. 6. Anarchists—Drama. 7. Germany—Drama. I. Title.

  PR6069.T6V695 2003

  822′.914—dc21

  2003042181

  Grove Press

  841 Broadway

  New York, NY 10003

  03 04 05 06 07 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  I am gratefully indebted to Trevor Nunn for encouraging me towards some additions and subtractions while The Coast of Utopia was in rehearsal

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I would like to thank, first, Aileen Kelly, who has written extensively about Alexander Herzen and Mikhail Bakunin. I am indebted to her for her kindness as well as her scholarship. Moreover, Dr Kelly is, with Henry Hardy, who also has my gratitude for our exchanges, the coeditor of the book which was my entry to the world of The Coast of Utopia, namely Russian Thinkers, a selection of essays by Isaiah Berlin. Berlin is one of two authors without whom I could not have written these plays, the other being E. H. Carr, whose The Romantic Exiles is in print again after nearly seventy years, and whose biography of Bakunin deserves to be. I received valuable help from Helen Rappaport on Russian matters in general. I am particularly indebted to her for Russian translation, including lines of dialogue. Krista Jussenhoven kindly made up for my deficiency in German, Rose Cobbe corrected my French, and Sonja Nerdrum supplied me with the lines in Italian. My thanks to all of them, and to the Royal National Institute for the Deaf for access to its library.

  Voyage was first performed in the Olivier Auditorium of the National Theatre, London, as the first part of The Coast of Utopia trilogy, on June 27, 2002. The cast was as follows:

  ALEXANDER BAKUNIN John Carlisle

  VARVARA Felicity Dean

  LIUBOV Eve Best

  VARENKA Charlotte Emmerson

  TATIANA Lucy Whybrow

  ALEXANDRA Anna Maxwell Martin

  MISS CHAMBERLAIN Jennifer Scott Maiden

  BARON RENNE Jack James

  SEMYON John Nolan

  MICHAEL BAKUNIN Douglas Henshall

  NICHOLAS STANKEVICH Raymond Coulthard

  MASHA Janet Spencer-Turner

  VISSARION BELINSKY Will Keen

  IVAN TURGENEV Guy Henry

  ALEXANDER HERZEN Stephen Dillane

  MRS BEYER Janine Duvitski

  NICHOLAS SAZONOV Jonathan Slinger

  NICHOLAS OGAREV Simon Day

  NICHOLAS KETSCHER Paul Ritter

  NICHOLAS POLEVOY Nick Sampson

  NATALIE BEYER Rachel Ferjani

  PETER CHAADAEV Iain Mitchell

  STEPAN SHEVYREV Sam Troughton

  DYAKOV David Verrey

  KATYA Jasmine Hyde

  PUSHKIN Jack James

  A GINGER CAT Richard Hollis

  Other parts played by Thomas Arnold, Martin Chamberlain, Sarah Manton, Kemal Sylvester

  Director Trevor Nunn

  Set, Costume and Video Designer William Dudley

  Lighting Designer David Hersey

  Associate Director Stephen Rayne

  Music Steven Edis

  Movement Director David Bolger

  Sound Designer Paul Groothuis

  Company Voice Work Patsy Rodenburg

  CHARACTERS

  ALEXANDER BAKUNIN

  VARVARA, his wife

  MISS CHAMBERLAIN, an English governess

  BARON RENNE, a cavalry officer

  SEMYON, senior household servant

  MASHA, the maid

  NICHOLAS STANKEVICH, a young philosopher

  MICHAEL BAKUNIN, the Bakunins’ son

  VISSARION BELINSKY, a literary critic

  IVAN TURGENEV, a would-be writer

  ALEXANDER HERZEN, a would-be revolutionary

  NICHOLAS POLEVOY, editor of the Telegraph

  MRS BEYER

  NATALIE BEYER, Mrs Beyer's daughter

  PETER CHAADAEV, a philosopher

  STEPAN SHEVYREV, editor of the Moscow Observer

  KATYA, Belinsky's mistress

  ALEXANDER PUSHKIN, the poet

  DYAKOV, a cavalry officer

  A GINGER CAT

  SERVANT, PARTY GUESTS, MUSICIANS, ETC.

  ACT ONE

  SUMMER 1833

  Premukhino, the Bakunin estate, a hundred and fifty miles north-west of Moscow.

  Interior, verandah, garden. There are places to sit in the garden, and a hammock. One setting is intended to serve for Act One.

  Family supper is coming to an end. At the table—ALEXANDER BAKUNIN (sixty-five) and his wife, VARVARA (forty-two); their daughters, LIUBOV (twenty-two), VARENKA (twenty-one), TATIANA (eighteen) and ALEXANDRA (seventeen); MISS CHAMBERLAIN, a young English governess; and BARON RENNE (thirty-six), a cavalry officer in uniform. Household servants (serfs), notably SEMYON, who is senior, attend the table as may be. ‘English’ dialogue is spoken with a Russian accent, except in the case of Miss Chamberlain. The tempo is lively. Alexander Bakunin's rule is benign despotism, but the family atmosphere is prevailingly democratic.

  ALEXANDER Speaking of which—Liubov, say something in English for the Baron.

  LIUBOV What do you want me to say, Papa?

&n
bsp; ALEXANDER All my daughters have been educated in five languages—call me a liberal if you like, I read Rousseau as a young man, I was there at the storming of the Bastille, not storming it personally but I remember my feelings were decidedly mixed, that's how liberal I was when I was nineteen. But education for women, yes indeed!—not just piano lessons and Russian grammar pour les filles Bakunin, though mind you, they write better Russian than I do—what a shame there's nothing worth reading (over his daughters’ protests), apart from …

  DAUGHTERS Pushkin!

  ALEXANDER … Pushkin. But I tell you, Baron, in choosing my eldest daughter you have chosen the cleverest—

  VARVARA I prefer Kozlov.

  ALEXANDER —brains before beauty, I wish I'd done the same—

  DAUGHTERS Oh shame!—Shame on you, Papa—I hereby protest on behalf of my beautiful sister—Don't you listen, Liubov—

  VARVARA Quiet when your father is speaking—

  MISS CHAMBERLAIN What did your father say?

  LIUBOV I take it as a compliment, Papa.

  VARVARA So do I.

  TATIANA The Baron doesn't think so, do you?

  RENNE No! No … Liubov is as beautiful as your wife is intelligent.

  ALEXANDER That's what I said. What a diplomat! Come on, Liubov, my darling, we're waiting.

  LIUBOV I'm sure the Baron doesn't want …

  ALEXANDRA I can, Papa! (She pops up, standing rigid. In ‘English’) ‘How do you do, Baron Renne! I say! charming weather, you do not think!'

  She sits just as suddenly, and Tatiana follows suit.

  TATIANA (in ‘English’) ‘The quality of mercy is not strained, it dropping like the gentle dew from heaven!’

  Tatiana sits. Alexander continues imperturbably.

  ALEXANDER I myself was educated in Italy. My doctorate in philosophy is from the University of Padua.

  MISS CHAMBERLAIN Jolly good effort, Tatiana.

  RENNE Really? Philosophy?

  VARVARA What did she say?

  ALEXANDER My dissertation was on worms.

  TATIANA Shakespeare, Maman.

  RENNE Worms the philosopher?

  ALEXANDER No, just worms.

  VARVARA I mean Miss Chamberlain, qu'est-ce qu'ele a dit? [What did she say?]

  RENNE Ah, the philosophy of worms.

  VARENKA Elle l'a félicitée, Maman, c'est tout. [Good effort, Maman, that's all.]

  ALEXANDER Not at all. Worms have no philosophy, as far as is known.

  VARVARA How can you teach them anything if you can't talk to them?

  ALEXANDER Exactly.

  MISS CHAMBERLAIN I'm so sorry, what did your mother say?

  ALEXANDRA (in English’) ‘No lessons tomorrow, she said, holiday.’

  MISS CHAMBERLAIN I think not, see me afterwards.

  ALEXANDER That's enough English for now. Anyway, a wife who knows English is not the first consideration for an officer in the Cavalry, otherwise you'd be better off with the governess—No, I only have one serious objection to this marriage, my dear Baron—

  DAUGHTERS Oh, no!—What's he going to say next?!—Don't you listen, Liubov!—Father, don't—!

  VARVARA (raps the table) Enough!

  ALEXANDER Thank you. What was I saying? Oh, well, it's gone.

  RENNE Actually, I have to be going myself while there's still light in the sky, if you forgive me, it's a good ride back to camp—

  VARVARA Yes, you must, it wouldn't do to break your neck before the happy day, or after, of course.

  Noises of arrival and greeting are heard.

  ALEXANDER What's going on?

  RENNE A thousand thanks—(for Liubov, gallantly)—a thousand and one—

  VARENKA Someone's come.

  SEMYON (entering) It's Michael, sir, large as life! He's come home!

  MICHAEL BAKUNIN is nineteen, in uniform. His entry causes an excited and emotional reunion, as ‘the table’ breaks up.

  FAMILY Michael!—Oh my, look at you!—Why didn't you let us know?—So grown up! Look at his uniform!—Let me kiss you!—You're not in trouble, are you? I prayed and prayed for you—How long are you staying?—

  MICHAEL No, I'm on leave—I came straight from summer exercises!—

  ALEXANDER It's my boy, he's an ensign in the Artillery.

  RENNE Of course—the famous Michael.

  LIUBOV (to Renne) Thank you for your visit, I'm sorry my family is …

  RENNE Oh no, you're all so … wonderfully unrussian …

  MICHAEL And congratulations are in order, I believe. Do I have the honour … ?

  LIUBOV Baron Renne—I present my brother Michael—

  RENNE You have been at the Artillery School in Peter?

  ALEXANDRA For five years!

  ALEXANDER (to Miss Chamberlain) Run and tell Semyon to bring champagne. ‘Command Semyon to provision—’

  MISS CHAMBERLAIN (running out) Champagne, champagne, I understand—

  TATIANA Our English governess, do you think she's pretty?

  MICHAEL No, I think you're pretty.

  RENNE (tapping his glass) Ladies and gentlemen! (addressing Michael) The Cavalry drinks to the Artillery. But a family reunion is a sacred affair, and I was just saying good night—regimental duties, who understands better than you? So farewell! I embrace you, and am proud to call you brother!

  Applause from the family. Michael and Renne shake hands and embrace.

  ALEXANDER Good! Come along, we'll give you a proper send-off. Semyon!—Pavel!—one of you—his horse—the Baron is leaving!—

  A general exodus begins.

  ALEXANDER (cont.) (remembering) Ah, yes. That was it. I have only one serious doubt about this marriage—

  LIUBOV (tearfully) Father …

  VARENKA (to Liubov) It's a joke.

  ALEXANDER … and that is the difference in your ages.

  RENNE But I'm only thirty-six!

  ALEXANDER A good ten years too young for her! The husband should be at least twice the age of the wife.

  VARVARA But you're not.

  ALEXANDER Not now, of course. (to Renne) Beauty before brains.

  ALEXANDRA Are you coming, Michael?

  TATIANA (hanging back) Yes, he's coming.

  MICHAEL (to Liubov) Do you want to see him off without everybody … ?

  LIUBOV (hastily) No, no, let's all go.

  ALEXANDER Family on parade! … Handkerchiefs for waving and weeping—(to Renne) My wife was eighteen and I was forty-two. See my point?—just when the wife starts getting a mind to kick over the traces, she realises she only has to show a little patience …

  Michael, Varenka and Tatiana are left alone.

  MICHAEL Well! He won't do! Liubov doesn't love him, that's obvious.

  VARENKA We know that.

  TATIANA She won't go against Papa, and the Baron is a good match, isn't he?

  Semyon enters with a tray of champagne glasses, and Miss Chamberlain with a bottle. Voices outside: ‘Tatiana! Michael! And where's Varenka?’

  MICHAEL Thank you, Semyon. Leave us be.

  Semyon leaves deferentially. Miss Chamberlain, unwisely, approaches gushing.

  MISS CHAMBERLAIN So you are Michael.

  MICHAEL ‘Go away, please.’

  Miss Chamberlain gasps. The girls are shocked and admiring. Miss Chamberlain runs out. From outside ‘Varenka!’ is called. Varenka runs out.

  MICHAEL (cont.) I'm speaking of love and you are speaking of matchmaking. Tata, Tata, don't you know? Dawn has broken! In Germany the sun is already high in the sky! It's only us in poor behind-the-times Russia who are the last to learn about the great discovery of the age! The life of the Spirit is the only real life: our everyday existence stands between us and our transcendence to the Universal Idea where we become one with the Absolute! Do you see?

  TATIANA (desperately) Tell it to me in German.

  MICHAEL This marriage cannot take place. We must save Liubov. To give oneself without love is a sin against the inner life. The outer world of material existence is mere illusion. I'll explain it all to Father.

  Tatiana and Michael are being called from outside. She launches herself at Michael to embrace him, and runs out.