Complicite’s Simon McBurney stages the unstageable in this five-star show.
In taking on Mikhail Bulgakov’s posthumously published epic, Complicite’s Simon McBurney not only needs to enact two wildly variant plot strands, but also make a compelling presence of the city of Moscow itself – acknowledged in McBurney’s programme notes as the first essential step in such an endeavour.
Moscow could indeed be said to be the first character we meet – a phalanx of dourly-dressed yet ineffably precise mechanicals against a backdrop which zeros in on the main locations of the action. Following a repetitively nightmarish opening sequence, the action moves to a bench near Patriarch’s Ponds, where the eerie Professor Woland (Paul Rhys) prophesises the death of one of Moscow’s literati.
The ensuing chaos (in which ‘Woland’ proves just as good as his word) leads unfortunate onlooker and keen writer Bezdomny (Richard Katz) to the care of the local asylum. Here he encounters the Master (also Rhys), a shattered literary genius whose tale of Pontius Pilate and his anguish over the execution of Christ has also been scornfully rejected by the state-approved Massolit literary group.As the story unfolds, we shift between Biblical-era Judea, a Moscow steeped in anarchy by demons, the poignant history of the Master’s illicit relationship with the passionate, full-blooded Margarita (Sinead Matthews), and the lengths to which both of them are prepared to go, for art and for each other.
It’s a testament to McBurney’s commitment to the text that as much as possible has been included of Bulgakov’s legendarily unstageable novel. That it not only works, but succeeds magnificently is nothing less than a triumph. Crumbling, stultified Moscow is powerfully evoked by Es Devlin’s monolithic set, which transforms in seconds into a realm of passionate fantasy, thanks to ingenious lighting (Paul Anderson), stunning video (Finn Ross, plus 3D animator Luke Halls) and sublime puppetry from Blind Summit, in particular the noxiously unmissable demon-cat Behemoth.
The dramatic power of the ensemble is simply extraordinary – the most prominent performances from Katz (a superb literary ‘everyman’), Matthews (fiery, but made parchment-vulnerable by love), McMullan (blustering and grief-stricken), Angus Wright (magnetic as the Devil’s chief henchman) and of course, Rhys in a truly star-making effort, should not eclipse the terrific level of heart, skill and balletic prowess displayed by the whole cast.
Bulgakov worked on this novel until he died, never seeing it published in his lifetime. From it, McBurney has created a fittingly lasting, powerful testimony to the immortal power of the artist.
Complicite's The Master and Margarita runs at The Barbican until 7th April
Image by Bohumil Kostohryz
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