Hot “The Master and Margarita” was shown in the Russian North

Along the aisles of the large hall (1,200 seats), rising up in a steep amphitheater, a suspicious-looking citizen is wandering around: a khaki raincoat, a boy’s cap with a toe on his forehead, a string bag with a couple of empty bottles in his hand. “Probably Annushka,” I thought. “She should be thinking about sunflower oil, but she’s looking around the room for bottles.” The citizen does not stand on ceremony with the smartly dressed premiere audience: “Get your feet off!” – and with the hunter’s triumph he discovers an empty container under the chair. The audience rejoices, not suspecting that the citizen with a string bag, working as a warm-up, will not give anyone peace. And that other comrades will join her.

But then Annushka moved towards the stage – also, I note, of considerable size, along which the Russian capital stretches: a low blue model with high-rise towers, surviving churches, a river. Just a few steps nearby, and Annushka becomes a character in this great city. And then the curtain flew up, revealing a staircase, high and wide, from portal to portal. Exactly in the middle, a huge ruby ​​star descended from above. Under its radiance, many interesting things will happen – your deeds are wonderful, Lord.

And at the same moment, each of the bright steps was chosen by Muscovites, who, as you know, were spoiled by the housing problem. The musicians on the very top step are desperately playing Soviet jazz, still similar to the fashionable foxtrot and Charleston. Ladies in low-waisted dresses and hats, men in dapper suits dance, strike poses with brittle graphic lines, like in the cartoons in Krokodil magazine. The figures are fragile and therefore break quickly – they fall, roll down the steps. In place of the fallen ones, new ones arise. The picture is bright, picturesque, invigorating.

Timoshenko follows Bulgakov’s text strictly: after the eccentric overture there is a dialogue between the poet Bezdomny and Berlioz at the Patriarch’s, and there is the appearance of the professor of black and white magic Woland, accompanied by a strange company. The dispute about the existence of God and the proof that he exists will be revealed to the Soviet atheists right away: the mad philosopher Yeshua Ha-Nozri will be brought to Pontius Pilate, who is suffering from a headache. But the people of Yershalaim will rejoice that it is not they who are being granted forgiveness, but the troublemaker and rebel Varrava. Why does the crowd need a philosopher?..

The first act is so densely packed with action that two hours fly by. The director tightly connected the hall and the stage, which every now and then enter into dialogue. The artists, seated in the last row of the stalls, participate in the variety show scene, actively demanding exposure, and Annushka, who has already spilled the oil, is simply a star here and receives applause all the time.

You have to understand that everyone watches The Master and Margarita with their own interest. Someone is waiting for key scenes, colorful characters: how are they solved by the director? Here, for example, is the scene of Berlioz’s death under the wheels of a Soviet tram. A group of Komsomol members in leather jackets and red scarves, pressed tightly against each other, form a semblance of a carriage. The resemblance to a tram is added by the red cloth with another slogan, hinting at advertising, which can be seen on every vehicle today. And the steel sickle that each of the Komsomol members holds in her hand against the backdrop of calico hints at the mortal danger that the atheist Berlioz cannot avoid. The impressions were added by the sounds of a tram picking up speed, and now the head of the chairman of Massolit – a man-made rubber product – is already rolling across the stage, and the devilish company is already throwing this bright head like a ball in a children’s game of “doggie”. In the role of the “dog” is the cat Behemoth.

“The Master and Margarita” produced in Arkhangelsk does not reveal miracles of technical origin. No technology, video, numbers. Miracles of a fundamentally theatrical nature, born of the imagination of the directors, and not of digital achievements. The bet is placed on a miracle of acting, and it must be admitted that it is manifested in the play in the person of Mikhail Kuzmin (Woland), Dmitry Belyakov (Korovyov), Dzhambulat Bagov (Azazello) and Nina Nyanikova, acting as Behemoth. At the same time, the artist Irina Titorenko did not prepare any fur suit for the impudent cat. She has a hippopotamus in a shabby black jacket with short and tattered sleeves, short trousers torn from the knee and above, and a bowler hat on his head. The only thing that’s cat-like about him is his mustache and guttural, insinuating intonation. Actually, this wonderful actress does not pretend to be a feline animal, but a separate creature that you unconditionally believe: Bulgakov’s Hippopotamus is like that. The one who is always on hand, but on his own, between the scam Koroviev and the impudent Azazello. And red-haired Gella is here with expressive forms (Olesya Popova).

The stage in the variety show did not require any special technical tricks, which did not deprive her of the freedom that can be observed in the circus during a performance on the carpet arena. They are characterized by extreme freedom in the game, a seemingly unpolished tricks and, of course, contact with the audience. Woland’s appearance to the Moscow public is visually impressive and, again, performed with simple means: he is at the top of the stairs, in a chair between two large mirrors, in which part of the hall is reflected. And everything that will happen in the bad apartment on Sadovaya, 50, or in the insane asylum, where the Master heard from Bezdomny the story about the procurator of Judea, is also played out like a circus. Styopa Likhodeev will fly out the door, kicked by Koroviev to the characteristic sound of drums. He will be followed by his uncle from Kyiv and other dishonest citizens.

In fact, the first act is a deliberately farcical exposition of the second, short and strict act, dedicated to the title characters of Bulgakov’s novel. Yes, the Master and Margarita will meet only in the second act, on the same Moscow stairs. Their meeting will be decorated with white roses descending from above: the Master did not like the yellow flowers with which Margarita walked down the street. And… Finnish knives that will follow the roses from above. “Love jumped out in front of us, like a killer jumps out of the ground in an alley, and struck us both at once! That’s how lightning strikes, that’s how a Finnish knife strikes!” Too straightforward, you say? Not at all – very beautiful and organic. It is interesting that the role of the Master and Pontius Pilate is played by one actor – Ivan Bratushev. These characters aren’t usually connected in this way.

Andrei Timoshenko’s production is clear and transparent in all its lines – Moscow and Muscovites in the first third of the 20th century, the evil spirits that visited it precisely during this difficult period of history for the country, and the love of the heroes who faced a difficult choice. And, of course, Yeshua with Pontius Pilate. In the play, Timoshenko took up almost the entire troupe – 42 artists, but on the big stage of the Arkhangelsk drama there is no feeling of a huge extras. There is a lot of air and light here. The director, who acted in the play and was the set designer (he is an architect by training), the scenes look like paintings from different eras.

After the premiere we speak with director Andrei Timoshenko.

— Andrey, why did you choose the most iconic work of Mikhail Bulgakov for the production?

— Firstly, this is my favorite novel. I’ve wanted to do it for a long time, but I didn’t dare. Well, after the productions of Doctor Zhivago and One Hundred Years of Solitude, I became bolder with novels and thought: “Why not?” Moreover, I have the opportunity to do whatever I want in my theater. Why waste time on trifles? I’ll do “The Master and Margarita.”

I wanted to tell a love story that happened in such a difficult time. After all, the novel is called “The Master and Margarita,” and the text is Bulgakov’s, which sounds in the finale: “Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in the world? Let them cut out the liar’s vile tongue!”

— Quite unexpectedly, one actor plays the roles of the Master and Pontius Pilate. Did it happen or was it a conscious choice?

— This decision, to be honest, was on the surface. Usually the Master is connected with Yeshua, but I thought that the Master was writing a novel not about Yeshua Ha-Nozri, but about Pontius Pilate. Why is he interested in him? I began to think: what was the social status of the Master in 1937? He works in a museum, lives in some small apartment, from where he later moves to a basement on Arbat. In fact, he is a nobody, he is afraid of life – yes, he is afraid of everything, he lives in some kind of his own world and thinks that this is because he has such a status. And suddenly in history he sees a person who has maximum power and also got scared at the right moment. And the Master explores the phenomenon of cowardice, which does not depend on how much power you have. It depends on the person himself, and this is also the theme of my performance. Cowardice is the greatest sin.

And everything worked out for me. And the story with the poet Bezdomny is interesting to me as the story of the formation of an artist. Because this hero is the only one who gained while everyone else suffered. Being a “single-celled” poet, he becomes a real artist. Who told this story, who collected all these fragments? He. What happened to him at the Patriarch’s and what the Master told him in the madhouse – he comprehended all this and he himself grows into a Master. This line can be traced in the play.

– Another appointment – actress Nina Nyanikova in the role of Hippopotamus…

“I knew that Nina would do it brilliantly.” She has such a range – from Lara in Doctor Zhivago to Khlopov in The Inspector General and now to Behemoth: she has experience in male roles.

“And yet the main theme of the play – the love of the Master and Margarita – appears in the second act and, in comparison with the theme of Moscow and the affairs of Woland’s company, is less so. Why?

— Here is another important theme, which, I hope, can be read in the play: 1937 was the peak time of the fight against God in the country, the destruction of the church, and Bulgakov, as a man from a family of hereditary priests, understood all this. The devil can only appear at a time when churches are being destroyed. And I thought: in the novel, in general, no one commits positive deeds, but in Christianity there is such a thing – “the end of the world will not happen if there is at least one righteous person.” And in the play, Margarita, who loves the Master, nevertheless performs an act of mercy not towards him, but towards Frida, who strangled a newborn child. Therefore, the end of the world did not happen in Moscow at that time. Yes, the devil wants to get Margarita’s soul because she is faithful and capable of love. Therefore, we have not just Love, but Love that conquers evil.

Until now, many argue and argue: did Margarita sell her soul to the devil or not, did she become a witch or not… But from the theological point of view, you cannot become a witch for half an hour. What really matters is what happens to the main characters here and now. And all this leads them to make a choice. Margarita saves both her lover and Moscow.