Written as a novel in 1928 under the intellectual repression of Stalin, the story of The Master and Margarita was smuggled out of the Soviet Union to be finally published in Paris in the 1960s. Drawing on the ancient ‘pact with the devil’ tale, the story is a wild and adventurous biting social satire, blending supernatural fantasy and biblical history to create larger than life characters.
Three different storylines combine in this adaptation by English playwright and theatre director Edward Kemp. Moving rapidly through a slapstick depiction of life in Stalinist Moscow when the devil Woland shows up and gives everybody what they want; Pontius Pilate is transformed from the familiar Biblical version; and the Master meets Margarita – embracing cowardice, artistry, duty, loyalty and love.
Within a compressed timeframe, this extended allegory is a place where flight equals freedom, where greed and small-mindedness are punished, and where weary artists are afforded some mercy and peace.
