On the evening of the 27th at 23:00, the eight- hour long play ,The Master and Margarita, created by The St. Petersburg Masterskaya Theatre, finished its final performance at the 2024 Beijing People's Art International Drama Invitation Exhibition. All the actors stepped onto the stage and took their bows for many times amid the greatest applause and cheers of the audience, and joyfully stomped their feet on the stage of the Capital Theatre to celebrate the success of the performance. The lively atmosphere on and off the stage makes it hard to imagine that this theater has gone through a journey of marathon drama from 13:00 in the afternoon to 23:00 at midnight. Many viewers were excitedly waiting at the entrance of the Beijing People's Art Theatre for the actors to take a photo and sign their names. They said, "Watching such a play is so satisfying!"
Response: an 8-hour stage masterpiece once again shakes the Chinese theater industry
The Masterkaya Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, which once shocked Chinese audiences with its 8-hour epic drama The Quiet Don River, has brought the adaptation of Bulgakov's classic work The Master and Margaret to the Chinese stage at the invitation of the Beijing People's Art International Drama Exhibition and Propel Media. On October 26th and 27th, the performance was held at the Capital Theater from the afternoon until midnight, causing a sensation in the Chinese theater industry once again.
After watching the premiere, Pu Cunxin couldn't help but feeling excited, saying that such a performance "makes people know that they endure because of its excellence. The creation of a theater director, which is even larger than Russian land, is boundless like the universe and solar system. He can continue to write about the past years for 49 hours without hesitation, believing that it is still wonderful. Salute to the actors, they are the elves Shakespeare said inThe Tempest. Wu Jing'an, who is an actor, also praised, "The eight-hour The Master and Margaret is a physiological challenge to watching! The reality is magical, and during the performance, you have too much to watch. A group of actors under the age of 35, each with outstanding skills, are amazing. The last sentence of the whole play 'let people know' indeed lets the audience know and think that the play can be performed in this way. It's a play, but not only a play. It's a calamity in the process of life. Hail to the introducer of the play, Qian Cheng! Hail to Beijing People's Art Theatre!"
After watching the premiere, director Huang Ying enthusiastically recommended the play on his social media and said that the stage design of the play had greatly inspired him: "It's not about how expensive the materials and craftsmanship are, or how much originality is necessary. As long as it's suitable and comfortable, it's awesome!" PlaywrightLi Jing believes that the play is "an absolute loyalty to the original work and a deep tribute to Bulgakov". Playwright Chen Li sighed, "My heart was frozen and stung in the slightly cool autumn night, and then I was tempted by the devil. The frozen soil seemed to loose a bit. Wine, whether bitter or hot, watered the restless stomach walls. Bulgakov and his descendants lifted us to run wildly against the blade like wind, then we gasped and thought about the meaning of living. We praise this epoetic journey of textbook style from novel to drama." Audience member Yang Sisi also believed, "The Master and Margaret"of 8-hour version is fully performed, covering every aspect. The actors are so powerful, relaxed and tense, winning this physical marathon that interweaves divinity, romance, liveliness, and poetry."
Original work: A representative work of magical realism that has influenced the world
The Master and Margaret is one of the most important Russian novels in the 20th century. Author Bulgakov started writing in 1929 and spent twelve years revising his manuscript eight times until his death in 1940. He devoted his last strength to this masterpiece, and also left his last words to this work - "Let the world know". After his death, his widow Yelena carefully guarded the manuscript and waited for 26 years. After a quarter century of silence and waiting, she finally fulfilled his instructions. The serialization of The Master and Margaret in the Moscow magazine from 1966 to 1967 immediately sparked a long-lasting 'Bulgakov fever' that also influenced countless readers in China. The strong autobiographical color, black humor, and mysterious style of the work make it one of the representative works of magical realism in the history of world literature.
The story background of The Master and Margaret is set in Moscow in the 1930s, where a writer known as the "Master" mysteriously disappears and his lover Margaret suffers greatly. At this moment, the devil Satan descended and brought Moscow into the apocalypse. In despair, Margaret made a deal with the devil. She turned into a witch, flew into the air to rescue the master, and flew together to the ideal country. However, this is only the surface plot of the story. Director Gregory Kozlov, through the in-depth interpretation and reconstruction of the original work, places the focus of the story on the relationship between the master and Margaret, as well as the alienation of the entire social environment, presenting a profound reflection on the real world.
On scene: The scene changes and the performance is full of tension
The 8-hour play duration and exhilarating stage tension have become the "signature image" of the Masterskaya Theatre led by director Grigory Kozlov in the minds of Chinese audiences. The Master and Margaret staged this time consists of four acts, divided into two parts, with a total duration of 7 hours and 50 minutes. Each part lasts about four hours, and the audience needs to enjoy both performances to get a whole picture. This setup not only tests the audience's patience and focus, but also fully demonstrates the theater's profound understanding and careful polishing of this work.
The scenes in the play are unpredictable. The lighting and music are rich. The actors' performances are full of tension, and the stage scheduling is full of imagination. The fate of the master is full of ups and downs. Margaret is breathtakingly beautiful. Satan has insight into human hearts. Black cats act strangely, and people are manipulated by desire... The entire performance mixes classic masterpieces of mythology, love stories, and philosophical allegories that are full of imagination and magical temperament, making people feel overwhelmed. During the eight-hour performance, not only did it reveal the complexity and contradictions of human nature, but it also reflected the darkness and chaos of society at that time. The play allows the audience to see resistance and escape from the real world, as well as the pursuit and persistence of ideals and beliefs. The last meaningful line of the entire drama, 'Let the world know,' is even more moving.
Behind the scenes: Unique actor training and rehearsal methods
In the play The Master and Margarita, there are 155 characters completed by 28 actors, all of whom were fourth-year students personally trained by the director Kozlov at the Drama Directing Studio of Russian State Institute of Performing Arts. Since becoming the founder and artistic director of the Masterskaya Theatre in 2010, the director Grigory Kozlov has rehearsed nearly 20 theatrical works in the theatre, leading generation after generation of students to create their own representative works. He has a unique set of methods for cultivating actors and rehearsing plays. Under his leadership, students respectively rehearsed excerpts that are based on the entire novel by Bulgakov, after which Kozlov selected and created these excerpts.
The rehearsal of the play lasted for two years, and it took nearly a month to assemble and synthesize in the theater. Combining The drama teaching, in the form of "Drama Family Workshop", with the theater performance ensures the absolute authority and "exquisite craftsmanship" of director Kozlov's creation, while also presenting a unique artistic style of this work.
