Originally created in 1997, it toured to sell-out engagements at festivals across Canada, made an SRO appearance at Seattle Repertory Theater during Bumbershoot, sold out at the Adelaide Fringe, where it was named Best Play of the '98 season. A stunning combination of stagecraft and storytelling.” The Edmonton Journal “ engrossing - This is the kind of apparent simplicity that demonstrates real theatrical sophistication - an invitation for an audience to take a leap of the imagination. These stories are tangled up with an alternate telling of a fateful meeting with Pontius Pilate.ĥ actors take on the challenge of 35+ characters, with on-stage musicians playing a brand new score by Brent Arnold.Ī headlong experience adapted from the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, this 90-minute pell-mell rollercoaster features one trunk, 3 screens, and a hard-working ghost light. And to find a hostess for his annual Devil's Ball. THE very basic-est BASICS: (imagine matryoshka or nesting dolls - a story in a story in a story)ġ932: The Devil comes to Moscow, demonic entourage in tow, to learn if Stalin's politics have actually changed human nature. Recipient of the FRINGE AWARD for BEST PLAY at the 1998 Adelaide Fringe, M&M has been theater simple’s most requested work, and given the state of global politics, ripe for re-examination. Originally staged in 1997, M&M toured for 4 years. Theater simple re-examines their award-winning take on Mikhail Bulgakov's satire for 2019. Theater simple shakes up a philosophical Molotov cocktail with shots of magic realism, vaudeville, the Bible and live music in this original adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's final masterpiece. Banned then censored for over 30 years, it has become one of the most influential novels of modern Russia. (1) – Please read Will Self's article in Guardian for more information about this telephone call.Īttribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.Satan comes to 1930's Moscow, but he's not the devil we think we know. It was published 27 years later after Bulgakov death. Absolution and Eternal Refuge)Īnd this very famous quote: Manuscripts don't burn. Repercussions of a bureaucratic system on intelligentsia and ordinary people.The dark epoch of Stalin and Stalin’s iron grip on intellectuals (by Soviet and Roman atmosphere) It's a book which can fulfill and satisfy many ways: The book has many political references to Stalin's epoch, but more notably in the chapter: “The Dream of Nikanor Ivanovich” which exclusively cites the “Moscow Show Trials”.īulgakov was aware of the aspects of living under the bureaucratic regime, the loneliness of intellectuals and their fear for the future. My favourite chapters are “The Satan's Rout”, “Black Magic and Its Exposure” and “How the Procurator Tried to Save Judas of Karioth”. The widely acclaimed masterpiece and one of the major work of literature: some critics consider it as the best novel of the twentieth century and the others regard it as one of the best a hundred novels of all time. His wife was the one who kept the book until Khrushchev's period. “Master and Margarita” had never been published in Bulgakov lifetime (in Stalin's epoch). Bulgakov added the Margarita character, based on his wife, later. The very first draft of the book didn't have Margarita. Comprehending the Pontius Pilate’s decisions under the conspicuous and formidable Roman Empire’s shadow, exactly like Stalin’s shadow on characters of the book though invisible, was gripping and thrilling. So I start to re-read it again and again. Elegantly, Bulgakov presented that period as a dark comedy. Prior to the book, I had read about the Stalin epoch. And then just like the sun comes out of clouds, I comprehended the wistful elegance of the book. It was the second time that I understood the connections. Three stories simultaneously: Master & Margarita story, Woland and his companion's story in Moscow and Jesus and Pontius Pilate. But the story appeared complex to me after the first reading. In my favourite bookshop: a second-hand bookshop that had left-wing books and Russian literature novels to sell, of course anonymously. Later, I found the “Mater and Margarita” entirely coincidental. Nevertheless, at home, we only had one of Bulgakov's books: “Black Snow” and not the “Master and Margarita”. with “Great Expectation” and “George Orwell's Essays”.īeforehand, I had read about Bulgakov's bold mail to Stalin in thirties, and surprisingly, the very proper return telephone call and the vital help of Stalin (1). “Master and Margarita” is one of three novels that had a profound influence on me as a teenager.
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