What to do with an adaptation of a novel, subject to an ambitiously simplified director’s goal and reminiscent of the torture of the text with effects?
Presumably, the part of the book-reading public will agree with me that Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” can be read, re-read and read again, because even some previously overlooked nuance in the characters’ actions or rhetoric can take our perception in completely unexpected directions and so strongly cut into the carousel of endless questions about the meaning of life , that even the changing reality of the day will have a hard time stopping it. From all this, mind-blowing and heart-touching interpretations of the novel in various arts and also in theater still arise, about which we can argue or debate, agree or disagree, or at least engage in polemics about the cultural layers, codes and signs contained in the text. But – what to do with the adaptation of the novel, which is subject to an ambitiously simplified director’s goal and resembles the torture of the text with effects?
One of the best Estonian directors, whose best performances I have followed since the days of NO99, who created an admirable “Macbeth” with the symphony orchestra at the Tallinn Philharmonic last year, today at Dailes Theater offers us a collage of novel situations, which is obviously based on a synthetic connection of scattered superficial ideas , trying to present it with visual means as a stunning current world scene. Disregarding the internal laws of the material, which connect the main plot lines, and the efforts to derive the metaphysics encoded in them from the lowest layers of experience on the stage, ruthlessly depicted by grandiose means (even if we force ourselves to perceive it as satire) turn into a performance that simply transforms the essential issues of the novel into modern in quick judgments.
“The Master and Margarita” production at the Daile Theater
The stage version of Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita is directed by Estonian director Titus Ojaso and Ene-Lisa Semper with an international team. Actors Mārtiņš Meiers and Ieva Segliņa will play the main roles.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
The production “Master and Margarita” in the Daile Theater.
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The play begins with a sketch of a boulevard in a big city: people are walking here and there, going about their daily routines, and three figures of immigrants in black appear in their midst. The stage turns, and the audience is exposed to a row of tiled rooms spread across the entire width, which will be adapted to the needs of the respective episode with minimal props during the performance. In the office set up in the first room, from time to time, in frozen poses, as if drawing cartoons about the bureaucratic environment, the literary functionaries bring up the problems of apartment sharing. The actors, according to the instructions of the directing duo, pose and make grimaces on the stage, and a couple of cameramen record it on the big video screen above the stage. In the next room, Berlioz and Ivan Bezpajumtnieks are discussing the ideological aspects of the Meistaras novel submitted to the editors, and Woland suddenly intervenes in their conversation. This activates the video story animated by the actors from different angles and running through the show about Pontius Pilate’s forced meeting with Yeshua Ha-Nocri and his inability to save him from death on the cross, which ends in the show’s finale with a beautifully exposed release of the procurator from two thousand years of soul suffering. By the way, this story, thanks to the carefully considered and playfully woven attitude towards Bulgakov’s text by three actors – Artūrs Skraņņš as Pontius Pilate, Mārtiņš Meiers as Yeshua and Dainis Gaidelis as Caiaphas – is remembered as the most valuable component of the show, as it allows the viewer to switch off at least for a while from the intrusive modernization of the novel and to listen to the truths about human nature, which has not changed a hair’s breadth.
Next comes the prophecy, even without Annushka’s spilled oil, the wedding of two of Woland’s assistants in front of the camera, running along the corridor with Berlioz’s severed head, Ivan the Homeless entering a psychiatric clinic, etc. All the “naughtiness” played by Fagot, Azazello and Gella, deprived of the thoughtful phrasing of the lines, in the production resembles a farce-like populist theatrical despotism, which is permeated by the director’s foolishness to once again prove to the audience that we are just pathetic consumers who have no idea about spiritual matters. In my opinion, the magic show performed on the street, not in the circus, with the shiny “shmotkas” of the market, is already such a well-played stage metaphor that it approaches the border of tastelessness, and I wonder if even amateurs would allow themselves to use it in their theater. As if there is nothing to blame for the manipulative actions of A. Kruzkop within the production, the actor plays his hooded Woland according to the director’s wishes, but it will be difficult to recognize the image he created of the ruler of darkness with thousands of years of experience about all human weaknesses.
As for the other most important plot line of the novel, the love of the Master and Margarita, it must be said that it also does not go beyond a string of clichés. The master, like a lightly smoked hippie, trembles in his own visions, and Margarita, as a modern admirer of talent, tries to comfort him so that the valuable manuscript does not perish, but the only proof of their timeless love on stage is a clumsy rollover on the mattress. It can already be assumed that after the sexual revolution some part of the public finds them convincing expressions of true love, but in that case it should be added that John Lennon and Yoko Ono once played them much more attractively in their public bed.
In order for the production to stay more stable in the waters of the drama created by themselves, the directors have added a peculiar ballast to it: Jews pray at the Wailing Wall, Palestinians there in their prayer ceremony, then refugees, terrorists, shootings, something similar to the explanatory dictionary of modern politics, which is exhibited in sculptural groups on a rotating stage. The contrasts of the era contained in this form will probably also cause a certain emotional echo in the audience, but in fact it is a technique discovered by the director duo a long time ago, which has been used more than once in performances in Estonia, moreover, what organically fits in one performance may turn out to be superfluous in another.
Despite the stylistic adaptation of the events selected in the novel to the functional actuality, which unobtrusively registers the modest fluctuations of the directorial thought, the play also has its own message contained in a short monologue of actors, in which it is revealed to the viewer that good and evil in this world are as inseparable categories as light and dark and without each other does not exist at all. It may be that some people are not really aware of this axiom and still believe that evil resides somewhere abstract outside of man, but Titus Ojaso and Eni Leesa Semper have decided to remind them of this in one ambitious performance. However, the question remains whether it was necessary to choose the world gold fund novel “The Master and Margarita” and turn it into an ambitiously directed failure. Isn’t that the same as melting down a pure gold coin into loose change with various cheap impurities so that every theatergoer gets a little bit of the coveted precious metal?
Inquiry
Mikhail Bulgakov, “The Master and Margarita”, production in the Great Hall of the Fine Arts Theater
- Authors, directors, scenographers, costume and video artists of the dramatization: Tits Ojaso, Ene Līsa Semper, body and movement work: Jiri Naels, sound design Jakobs Juhkams, lighting designer Jusi Ruskanen, director’s assistant Diāna Kaijak, acting and stage speech teacher Aina Matīsa, video support: Andris Fridrihssons, Edmunds Cīrulis, Dāvis Dreiska .
- Cast: Mārtiņš Meiers, Ieva Segliņa, Arturs Kruzkops, Artūrs Skrastiņš, Madara Viļčukas, Niklāvs Kurpnieks, Imants Strads, Kārlis Arnolds Avots, Gints Grāvelis, Dainis Gaidelis, Kaspars Dumburs, Maynards Liepiņš, Katrīna Grig, Milena Miskēviča, Aldis Siliņš, Toms Veličko, Ilze Kuzule-Skrastiņa.
- Upcoming performances: April 13, 14, 26.
Opinion
Signe Sedliņa: “A great show in all aspects! The technical solution and scenography are world-class. The acting, mimicry and movements are excellent! I especially liked Meiers, Kruzkops and Kurpnieks, who in this show made me change my perception of the quality of these actors. Viľčuka is a perfect addition to the Daile troupe. But I also bow to the other actors! Great job!”
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