Eamon Flack's production of "Master and Margarita" begins with three performers picking up a copy of the titular novel and reading it out loud. But soon strange things begin to happen, and soon we're off on a rollicking story full of magic, mysticism, religion, copious nudity, romance and a murderous cat. It's a strange adaptation that feels like it's simultaneously trying to tell the story of the novel and the circumstances of its creation, with byways all over the place. But it's a distinctively Belvoir flavour of romp,too, with dance, eccentricly outlandish performances, magic, a mega-fast revolve and enough stuff left all over the stage by the end of the show to make it very probably a nightmare for the stage crew to reset again.
The cast are game for anything, from Matilda Ridgeway's narrator to Josh Price's Behemoth the Cat. Bulgakov's novel may or may not be anything like this, but certainly this is a compelling night out in the theatre. In some ways it's the most sophisticatedly produced piece of student theatre I've ever seen, with ideas thrown at it in abundance, but it's played to perfection by the cast. If you don't fall onto the wavelength of this, I can imagine it becoming a very tedious evening very quickly, but fortunately this hit me in all the right places. I think the best way to go into this may just be to know as little as possible going in apart from that anything can happen and probably will.
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