NEW YORK -- The perfect world doesn't exist, which is why Erasmus coined the word "utopia," meaning "no- where." But in some sense it must exist, or why would it mesmerize us so? It's exactly that hope of social progress that attracts us to the disparate group of 19th-century Russian reformers and radicals so vividly portrayed in Tom Stoppard's three-play epic, "The Coast of Utopia."

Paul Kolnik, Associated Press Jennifer Ehle and Brian F. O'Byrne as Natalie and Alexander Herzen in "Shipwreck," Part 2 of Tom Stoppard's trilogy, "The Coast of Utopia." Click photo for larger image. PG trip to the trilogy The Post-Gazette offers a special Critic's Choice theater tour to New York, led by theater critic Christopher Rawson, to see Tom Stoppard's epic, theatrical "Coast of Utopia" trilogy at Lincoln Center, April 13-15. The group travels Friday morning and returns late Sunday; the three plays are scheduled for Saturday afternoon and evening and Sunday afternoon. Included in the package price of $1,379 per person, double occupancy, are round-trip air fare from Pittsburgh, New York airport transfers and porterage, two nights at a convenient hotel, three theater tickets, dinner and discussion Saturday between shows and taxes and gratuities. For more information or to book space, phone Gulliver's Travels at 412-441-3131 (long-distance, 1-800-848-4084) or e-mail jackie@gulliverstvls.com. A deposit of $500 per person is required for confirmation; mail to Gulliver's Travels, 460 S. Graham St., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15232-1210. Space is very limited, and the deadline is Jan. 31 or until space sells out.

It's a cunning and poignant title, since giving utopia a coast makes it seem like an actual place -- which I guess reformers do believe -- while also suggesting its difficulty of attainment. A coast isn't the thing itself, just its approaches. It may also be a cruel mirage distantly glimpsed, or it may be the site of a shipwreck. To extend this metaphor, Stoppard names the three plays "Voyage," "Shipwreck" and "Salvage" -- a perfect arc of hope, catastrophe and tentative rebirth.

I'm also reminded of two famous seacoasts: Shakespeare's nonexistent "coast of Bohemia" (Bohemia is landlocked), and the long-sought warm-water port which was one of the chief goals of Russian expansionism.

There's no doubting the Russian-ness of Stoppard's long tale, which follows the interwoven fortunes of (primarily) six varied rebels: eventual anarchist Michael Bakunin, philosopher Nicholas Stankevich, poet Nicholas Ogarev, critic Vissarion Belinsky, author Ivan Turgenev and philosopher/humanist Alexander Herzen. It's like one of those grand Russian novels, full also of all the family members, lovers, friends, enemies, police spies and more lovers that occupied their lives from 1833 to 1865.

The six are all of the landed aristocracy, which is hardly surprising. Who else, in the archaic Russia of the czars (which hardly had any middle class), would have had the freedom to seek a liberal modern state on Western lines? They are the small, marginal "intelligentsia," then a derisive new word, coined because Russia didn't have a tradition of intellectual dissent.

In the long run they had a powerful influence, but in their lifetimes their schemes and dreams largely came to naught, ending generally in exile. It is part of the irony of a quintessentially Russian epic that begins in "Voyage" -- at Premukhino, the 500-serf Bakunin estate -- that in "Shipwreck and "Salvage" it must continue primarily in Paris, Nice and London.

Stoppard naturally loves the ideas with which these Russian aristocrats play so zestfully. And he is attentive to the grand surge of the century, which is made vivid on stage by Lincoln Center's grand designs, especially the sets of Bob Crowley and Scott Pask, which contrast such splendid sights as an icily-distant Kremlin, hanging above the stage like a medieval icon, with a gigantic throng of gray serfs lining the rear of the stage.

But Stoppard knows that even rabid theorists live in the here-and-now, so the heart of the three plays is in the intimate detail of friendships, love affairs and families. It is this intermingling of history and ideas with real lives that gives "The Coast of Utopia" its fascination.

Inevitably, even great events -- whether historic cataclysms or deaths of individuals we've come to know -- can take place on the edge of the story, in passing. Every scene is vivid and precise in its moment, so solid is the work done by director Jack O'Brien, but it takes audience attention to keep all those Russians in focus. This difficulty will be multiplied for some, as when Jennifer Ehle plays Bakunin's feeling sister, Liubov, in "Voyage," then switches to play Herzen's searching wife, Natalie, in "Shipwreck."

Part 1, "Voyage," covers 1833-44. In Act 1 at Premukhino, covering 1833-41, we meet the hopeful young men and their families and hear a great deal about what is going on in the larger world. Act 2, set in Moscow and St. Petersburg, covers 1834-44 and shows us many of those same events from a different angle.

The central figure is Bakunin, played by Ethan Hawke with swashbuckling verve, who goes through a new philosophy every year. His father, played magisterially by Richard Easton, stands for fading 18th-century liberalism. But the nonaristocratic Belinsky, played with quirky comedy and moral intensity by Billy Crudup, is the hero.

The rest of the company includes such names as Amy Irving and Martha Plimpton. Brian F. O'Byrne plays Herzen, who comes to the fore later, but who is literally placed on a pedestal from the first, spinning thoughtfully in the mist at the opening of each separate play.

Part 2, "Shipwreck" covers 1846-52 and focuses in Act 1 on the revolutions of 1848, seen from Paris, their epicenter. Act 2 is set mainly in Nice, where the Herzens and their friends retreat to lick their social/philosophic wounds and tend to their lives.

It's a huge panorama, and naturally enough it debuted at London's National Theater. Who but a huge, state-subsidized institution could take on such a monster -- three plays, with, in Part 1 alone, 26 named roles plus innumerable serfs, servants, party guests, musicians, etc., played by a company of some three dozen, plus lord knows how many buttons, babushkas, top hats and cups of tea?

There is no such theater in the United States, as we frequently lament ... but yes, there is: The Lincoln Center Theater comes pretty close, as I first observed when I saw its luscious 2003 staging of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's "Dinner at Eight," the sort of half-forgotten not-quite-classic you'd want a national theater to revive with such panache. And "Coast of Utopia" is the sort of one-of-a-kind epic you wouldn't want to leave entirely to university theaters.

I saw that National Theatre "Coast of Utopia" in 2002, which suggests how long it took Lincoln Center to assemble the resources for its own assault on the peak. I saw it in London in a one-day marathon, such as Lincoln Center is offering just nine times between Feb. 24 and May 5. It was an awful lot to absorb and savor, even for a hard-bitten pro.

At Lincoln Center, Stoppard and director O'Brien have slimmed the plays down for U.S. consumption to about 2 3/4 hours each.

Even so, if you go, I suggest spacing them out over two days or more. You can also see them solo -- the plays are that good -- but if you see one, you will probably want to see them all.

"Voyage" and "Shipwreck" began performing in early December; "Salvage" joins the rotation Jan. 30. The whole marvelous monster has been extended through May 13.

For schedule and tickets, call 1-800-432-7250.