Master and Margarita

The Devil has come to Edinburgh. Climbing up a decaying stairwell into a dark, creepy room that is abandoned 334 days of the year, the scene was set for Oxford University’s production of Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita. Melancholy Russian music streams out of an old record player; Margarita stands in the middle of the stage with deadpan features encased in gothic, bloody makeup; dusty smoke wafts through the room with the eerie sounds of a cat mewling.

The tale is a Faustian one of Satan creating havoc in 1930s Moscow under the guise of Woland, a professor of the black arts. With him are his companions Behemoth the cat and Fogatto, an evil clown. Heavily adapted from the novel, this would potentially have been difficult to follow if one was not already familiar with the story. In Part One, deeply perturbed by the Soviet Union’s atheistic tendencies, Woland has decided to seek a little retribution in the city: artists, writers and the general mass are killed, imprisoned or worse, sent to rot in mental asylums. This is where we meet the Master. His manuscript on Pontius Pilate, with its heavy religious script and unpopular themes, is rejected by editors and so he abandons his lover Margarita and sequesters himself in the dream world of the insane. Part Two brings us Margarita, passionately played by Cassie Barraclough, literally making a deal with the Devil. She becomes a beautiful naked witch who flies around the city to do Woland’s bidding. The dancing, singing and performances of each of the cast members are intense, whole-hearted and thoroughly professional.

This is not a simple case of good versus evil; for the great citizens of Moscow are not that saintly, nor is Woland without some morals. Finally, the Master and Margarita are reunited, and the Devil leaves Moscow with the couple in tow, sentenced to spend their existence in the shadowy depths of purgatory.

Dark and sinister, this performance didn’t have the sense of playfulness and satirical humour that Bulgakov portrayed in the novel. Because the events and themes are introduced simultaneously, this was a highly ambitious attempt to capture everything in a single hour. However, it was still very good indeed and, despite it being university theatre production, I would have easily thought it was a professional company.

Master and Margarita
C soco
22:30, 4-30 Aug