An idea cannot die, and a manuscript cannot be burnt – a reference from Bulgakov’s play staged this week at Bath’s Rondo Theatre. Despite the thought police in 1984, the KGB in Soviet Russia, the Red Guards in Communist China or the secret police in Belarus the human desire for freedom of expression and thought is never extinguished. Such is the underlying theme behind Mikhail Bulgakov’s play The Master and Margarita written during the Stalinist terror of the 1930s and completed by his wife Elena some years after his death in 1940. And now relevant again in Xi’s China, Kim’s North Korea and ironically again in Russia in Putin’s terrorist state where an innocent post on Facebook can lead to a decades long stint in prison.
It pays to swot up on the novel behind the play just a little as the drama doesn’t fit into any one genre or even follow a classic narrative thread but instead jumps between first century Jerusalem and 1930s Moscow. Director Josie Mae-Ross chose to dramatize the interrogation sequence of Yeshua (Jesus) by back lit puppets designed by James Vallance in a separate miniature theatre with Tim Carter voicing the role of Pontious Pilate. With essentially three stories interwoven – the love story of the title characters – the trial of Jesus – and Satan and his allies causing apocalyptic terror in Moscow – The Master and Margarita is confusing at first and more startling as the drama unfolds. What is it all about you may well ask? For Bulgakov the context was the state terror instigated by Stalin where artists, writers, poets and intellectuals could be ‘disappeared’ or killed for having ‘the wrong sort of thoughts’ and putting them on paper was akin to writing your own death certificate.
As a result, the play is a complex mix of the surreal, the absurd, the darkly humorous and the fantastic – but all underscored by the insanity of the Communist Party’s attempts to censor – something that Bulgakov resists. At one time he burnt his first draft for fear it would condemn him – and in the play the same incident is repeated. Only the caring character of Margarita saves his work and champions his ideas and writing – adding a love element to the complex and at times puzzling story.
Looking a little like the god-like figure in William Blake’s painting of The Ancient of Days Max Totterman mixed tortured writer and energised artist by turns in the title role – in contrast to his co-titular lover Margarita played with a professional assuredness in a symphony in yellow by honey voiced Natalie Prescott.
Chairman of the Soviet literary bureaucracy Berlioz was given a suitably unsmiling persona of the apparatchik by Richard Warren demanding the Master’s play about the trial of Jesus tow the party line as he attempted to control their official writer the tortured poet Bezdommy played by George Goodman in a series of scene stealing appearances with his sequence in the asylum particularly powerful.
Dressed as though for a role in Whisky Galore, Iorwerth Mitchell brought the necessary menace, charm and theatricality for the protagonist Woland or Satan – as he dictated events in Moscow. He was ably assisted by James Vallance as the terrifying giant black cat Behemoth who could also have doubled up as the cat in Dick Whittington – although his sinister feline persona would probably have frightened not only the children but their parents as well. Woland also had the beautiful besequinned Hella (Sophie Kerr) in his entourage, and the terrifying Azazello (Diluki O’Beirne) to add further menace.
Trepan was played by the excellent Bryan Douglas with a wonderful Teasel Howell as Rimsky and stylish Alana Wright as Varukha, while Jon Thrower was perfect as Stravinsky, Ed Hodgkinson was on top form as Pagoda and the glamorous nurse was played with medical efficiency by Ren Sinclair – who doubled up as Natasha.
Entertaining, lively, great characterisation with fabulous costumes and above all – it proves a manuscript cannot be burnt. Putin take note.
Harry Mottram
The Master and Margarita runs at the Rondo Theatre in Bath from 26-29 November, 2025.
Tickets and information are available at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/rondotheatre/the-master-margarita/e-kjmall
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