THE MASTER AND MARGARITA

Hungary • National Theatre, Budapest

Director: Aleksandar Popovski

In Hungarian. On MITEM with English subtitles.

3 hours with 1 breaks.

Though the novel The Master and Margarita was written in the 1930s, during Stalin’s iron-handed rule, it could not be published in full until the 1970s. Had it ended up in the hands of the secret police, it would probably have brought death to its author Mikhail Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita is light years away from socialist realism, the literary style of the era made compulsory by state decree.

The poet Ivan Nikolaevich “Homeless” is taken to a Moscow mental hospital in his underwear, wearing a crucifix around his neck. Utterly confused, he explains to the doctor how he met Satan who is involved in the beheading of a literary man - no one believes him, of course. While in his cell, Ivan receives a secret visit from the mysterious Master, a fellow-patient who knows the story of Pontius Pilate... Outside the asylum, Woland the Devil and his associates wreak havoc in the streets of Moscow; elegant clothes are given away in the theatre and money falls from the sky - the clothes then disappear so people roam the city naked; the money evaporates, too... The Master’s lover also shows up to make a deal with Woland... Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita is uniquely complex, intricate, mysterious, and captivatingly magical.

– We wanted to use this Moscow-Bulgakovian world to present the oppressive nature of the system. We rid the performance of the novel’s “communist” line. Today's liberal capitalist system, the world in which we live, is filled with fear and frustration. Spectators will recognize the system and themselves in it – says director Aleksandar Popovski.

Reading the novel, we shift in time and switch locations with ease, flying with Margarita over Moscow to Woland’s eerie ball. The free shifts through time and space and the switches between real and unreal are also implemented on stage. How? You must see for yourself!

The Master

Zsolt Trill

Margarita

Kinga Katona

Woland

Roland Bordás

Korovyev

József Kovács S.

Azazello

József Rácz

Behemoth

Márton Pallag m.v.

Hella, Saleswoman, Woman

Ágnes Barta

Berlioz, Rimsky

Attila Kristán

Ivan

Martin Mészáros

Stravinsky, Caiaphas

Ádám Schnell

Yeshua

Sándor Berettyán

Pilate

Zoltán Rátóti

Stope

József Szarvas

Varenukha, Rjuhnin

László Tóth

In other roles

Luca Badics, Lili Barna, Lujza Battai Lili e.h.,
Viktória Jambrovics, Tímea Virga, János Mató,
Dániel Székhelyi, Vrabecz Botond

Stage design

Numen/For Use + Ivana Jonke

The set designer's assistant

Dóra Riederauer

Costume design

Jelena Prokovic

Stage adaptation

Nejc Gazvoda

Composer, playwright

Ernő Verebes

Motion tutor

Luca Hoffmann

Translator

Anna Guczogi

Stage managers

István Lencsés

Krisztián Ködmen

Prompter

Szilvia Kabódi

Assistant Director

Gábor Vida

Director

Aleksandar Popovski

Main Stage

Aleksandar Popovski

Aleksandar Popovski was born in 1969 in Skopje. He graduated in theatre and film directing from the University of St. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje. By 2000, with his debut direction of Don Quixote at the Maribor Drama, he had already directed many successful productions with independent theatre groups and in institutional theatres in Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia. From Slovenia (where he also collaborated with the Celje City Theatre, Drama Ljubljana, Slovenian Theatre in Trieste, Ljubljana City Theatre) and the former Yugoslav republics, he expanded his workspace to Italy, Greece, Austria, Turkey, Sweden, Denmark, England, and Germany. His oeuvre already includes more than seventy productions, a third of which he created in Slovenia. Through his way of working and personal attitude, he brought a unique mixture of lightness and joy into the Slovene theatre space, a distinctive theatrical “joie de vivre” that radiates fervent devotion, aspiration for dreams and desire to move borders, providing space for music and laughter. As of the 2018/2019 season, he is the Maribor Drama artistic director.

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