Reader Reviews
The Master and Margarita (Barbican Centre, West End)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | The first half is clever but bitty, as you'd expect from crushing this novel into a three hour play. Satan's story is cut most significantly, making way for the story of Pontius Pilate and Jesus to take centre stage. The production is beautiful, as fantastical projections on the back wall prove epic, and effortlessly merge with the action. Comedy is primary here, as an allo-allo style German Satan (poor Germans, always demonised), in dark glasses and carrying a walking stick, gives atheism a kicking (slicing off a head of one hapless communist), and a walking talking cat with red eyes offers to shag everyone in the stalls. The second half is genius, as the (Margarita and the Master) love story of one naked woman's descent into hell to save her writer boyfriend concentrates all the force of grand expressionism and stunning motion and imagery into channeling the redemptive power of love. Ivan loves the Master's storytelling; Margarita loves the Master so much she sells her soul; Pontius Pilate, the subject of the Master's novel, loves Jesus so much he sacrifices happiness; the Master loves Pontius Pliate so much he redeems him through storytelling. It's all love love love at the conclusion and it works wonderfully well. The performances of Paul Rhys as the self-torturing Master (he also mugs it up as Satan), of Sinead Matthews as a bold nude Margarita and Tim McMullan (his lugubrious voice emanating from between his upper palate and nasal cavity) as a trapped frustrated and depressed Pilate are particularly good. - steveatplays | 07 Apr 12 |
| Absolutely stunning kaleidescopic production of the surreal, spiritual and political allegory. Cesar Sarachu a revelation as Jesus and The Devil Wolland. Complicite and Mcburney at their best combining physical ensemble theatre with audio visual high tech. Perhaps a bit too long and maybe the Lady who played Margarita did protest too much! However Paul Rhys as the master / Bulgakov counterpart was compelling! Audacious and innovative as ever! - Tim Armitage | 04 Apr 12 |
| Stunning theatricality that left me absolutely speechless. I have seen three adaptations of the novel on stage and this is certainly the clearest, some parts were still marginally confusing but to be honest I didn't care. A wonderful cast in a production of theatrical genius. What I particularly love about complicite is that in their stage trickery you can see the mechanics of the conventions. Truly spell binding, I think its sold out but if you can get returns jump on them. - tel | 03 Apr 12 |
| Sinead Matthews wasn't in A Dolls House. - M.Chambers | 26 Mar 12 |
| An evening of blazing theatricality but also great humanity. Complicite at their very best, great storytellers making the complex themes come alive! - Simon Surtees | 22 Mar 12 |
| Well, Complicite have staged the unstageable! I still don’t understand it, but it’s a theatrical feast nonetheless, though at 3 hours 15 mins maybe a bit too much food! Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel isn’t about a school teacher with a penchant for Mexican cocktails, though if that were also woven into the two stories of Satan visiting Moscow and Pontius Pilate’s remorse and regret, it probably would fit perfectly well. It is impossible and indeed pointless to offer much of a description, so I will just say it’s a fantasy and a satire and anyone who tells you they understand it is probably lying, or showing off, or both…… The reason for seeing it is that Complicite have chosen it as their most ambitious work yet and, lack of understanding aside, it is an extraordinary piece of staging. Much of this is due to the giant video projections of Third Company Limited, more used to projects like Elton John’s Las Vegas show, the Batman Arena event and U2′s 360 tour. These amazing visuals sit comfortably with the more minimalist imaginative staging and performance style we have become used to from Complicite and Simon McBurney. It’s great to see Paul Rhys again and there are some excellent performances from Richard Katz, Angus Wright, Tim McMullan, Ajay Naidu and Cesar Sarachu (who on Monday got into a pickle trying to get his loincloth on!) but I did find Sinead Matthews a little OTT as she was in A Dolls House at the Young Vic. There’s a puppet cat which looks like it walked out of a cartoon and the closing image of a projection of the cast on stage with chairs forming a giant horse is simply breathtaking. Go for the stagecraft and inventiveness rather than for a good old yarn and you’ll probably spend a lot of the evening with your mouth open in wonder. - Gareth James | 22 Mar 12 |
