Venue: Belvoir St Theatre (Surry Hills NSW), Nov 11 – Dec 10, 2023
Playwright: Eamon Flack (adapted from the book by Mikhail Bulgakov)
Director: Eamon Flack
Cast: Paula Arundell, Marco Chiappi, Tom Conroy, Gareth Davies, Amber McMahon, Josh Price, Matilda Ridgway, Anna Samson, Mark Leonard Winter, Jana Zvedeniuk
Images by Brett Boardman
Theatre review
Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita features Satan as provocateur, a figure intent on exposing hypocrisy and failings of society. There are also a novelist and a poet, who create further flights of fantasy, in addition to the already complex narratives being woven by Bulgakov. Eamon Flack’s adaptation not only transposes for the stage, key portions of the book, it also introduces biographical information about the author’s experiences with censorship in Stalin’s Soviet Union, and includes modernist commentary on the very process of adaptation.
The staging is ambitious, expansive and brave, full of passion in its often wild transformations of space and atmosphere. Inspired by the imaginative and unconstrained qualities of the source material, The Master & Margarita becomes a work of theatre that feels commensurately boundless, in both scope and intention, successful at translating a sense of spirit and of essence, rather than attempting to labour excessively over plot details. Almost a century old, references and contexts in Bulgakov’s text now feel inevitably distant, but his exuberant commitment to art and to politics, evidently remains an inspiration. The artists, under Flack’s directorship, demonstrate the perennial relevance of that dedication to truth and to an existential vigour, and their audience is certainly reminded of those virtues.
Lighting design by Nick Schlieper imbues sophistication for the production, increasingly flamboyant as the show progresses, but is curiously reticent at times, in something that should not shy from extravagance. Costumes by Romanie Harper indicate with clarity, the characters being presented, along with the times and places to which they belong, often with a gentle humour that adds valuable idiosyncrasy to the imagery we encounter. Memorable elements of magic and illusion are designed by Adam Mada, to engender an otherworldliness so crucial to any reading of Bulgakov’s work. Sounds and music by Stefan Gregory are gently transportative, surreptitious but highly effective in having us beguiled and attentive.
A formidable ensemble of ten performers take us through three hours of joyous mayhem, remarkable in their zeal and inventiveness. Each is given ample opportunity to showcase their individual strengths, and as a group, their chemistry is simply mesmerising. Performance guidance is provided by Emma Maye Gibson, who ensures uniformity in style, and establishes for the show, an air of decadence that proves transgressive not only as an artistic gesture, but also for how we can decipher and deconstruct the paradigms involved, in navigating life as contemporary colonised Australians.
There is a great beauty in this rendition of The Master & Margarita, with no shortage of courage and integrity being displayed, yet what it does say, seems never to be pointed enough. Perhaps abstractions can only speak on what the viewer is ready to receive, and not what the initiator wishes to convey. Perhaps wishing for art to change the world, can only be true in small increments, that its revolution can only happen gradually. Much as art can appear radical, maybe what it brings about, can only ever be subtle and slow. In the moment of interaction, The Master & Margarita seems commanding and forceful with all that it delivers, but what is actually being communicated sits somewhere visceral, likely to emerge with real poignancy at some unpredictable juncture.
Suzy Goes See 