THE MASTER AND MARGARITA (EL MAESTRO Y MARGARITA)

Simon McBurney produces, together with his company, Complicite, the most imaginative theatre that anyone has ever come across.

-THE INDEPENDENT

An archetype of the multidisciplinary theatre of the avant-garde, director Simon McBurney has brought together some of the finest actors of his renowned British company to adapt a masterpiece of Russian literature according to his idiosyncratic style, offering a new, epic production of The Master and Margarita. Mikhail Bulgakov's legendary 1928 novel is a classic Soviet satire. The text is a fierce critique, full of metaphors against the bureaucratic state which could not be published in full in that country until 1973. The work tells three different stories in parallel. Two are set in the atheistic Soviet Union of the 1930s and the third in Jerusalem during the time of Pontius Pilate. The London Evening Standard eulogised the production: "Complicite delivers its most hallucinatory work to date. It combines operatic grandeur with moments of aching poignancy. The production is visually ravishing. It's both absorbing and wonderfully nuts."

Beyond its unsettling plot, The Master and Margarita is an excellent opportunity to enjoy the work of this great company. All their productions are complemented by evocative stage settings and stunning visual effects which - as is the case in this work by Bulgakov - succeed in drawing attention to the surrealism of the story, giving the audience a disturbing sense of unease. The Master and Margarita premiered last year at Plymouth's Theatre Royal.

www.complicite.org