Master and Margerita by Theatre de Complicite (Barbican Theatre)

Moments of multimedia genius mask an ultimately under-par complicite performance. 
Master and Margerita is an intriguingly surreal journey into the frustrated mind of a writer, stifled by the militant censorship of artists in Communist Russia. The plot centres around a novelist, who fails to find a publisher for his book about Pontius Pilate, but finds, instead, the love of a woman (Margarita) who both worships the book and adores him. In a satirical twist to this faustian romance, Satan appears, hell bent on taking out Moscow's artistic elite. The complex narrative and unusual mix of styles prompted the acclaimed director to proclaim that the novel was 'impossible' to stage. However, although many complained that the show lacked the historical realism that was an amiable feature of the novel, for the most part, McBurney successfully overcomes these obstacles and creates a show that makes sense.


 McBurney's love affair with the book is evident in this performance as he takes large swathes of dialogue directly from the novel. Regrettably, this is partly the reason why the show, though entertaining, ultimately falls short of the usual standard that fans of Complicite will have expected of the show prior to taking their seats at the Barbican Theatre. McBurney is LeCoq trained and thus Complicite are at their best when communicating narrative through visual imagery.  Sadly the acting skill on show was not sufficient to hold the audience's interest in the large sections of dialogue that take place, particularly in the first half of the performance. Indeed, this is most notably the case in respect to the lead actress, playing the role of Margerita, whose vocal delivery fails to communicate any more than the shallowest meaning of her character's lines. 


There are, however, moments of trademark Complicite visual wizardry. In a moment of incredible choreography, (which recalls the visual trickery exemplified by the french Compagne 111), an overhead video camera records chairs being pulled across the stage by an ensemble of actors.  When this image is then projected onto the back wall it becomes a galloping horse, ridden by Satan. In another nice, though simplistic moment, a moving ticket booth becomes a tram, which collides with an unfortunate Russian novelist.  However, although some moments in the performance are aesthetically pleasing, all too many of these moments are multimedia based, rather than the product of outstanding physical theatre acting, as one would usually expect from this company. As a result, although one leaves the performance generally satisfied, one does not leave with the feeling that one has witnessed anything truly magical.


7/10


(Picture taken from Wiener Festwochen http://www.festwochen.at/index.php?id=eventdetail&L=1&detail=756)