M+M
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M+M

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Schlusser has a special interest in Russian literature, having his own connections with Russia in his family background. This book – Bulgakov’s masterpiece about the enduring nature of art – was one of many seminal novels Schlusser discovered in his early 20s. “It has a special strength all of its own,” he notes. “We laid our hands on the first translation, when everything was censored. Bulgakov never gave up his fantasy, never sacrificed his emotional world.”

The Master and Margarita was heavily censored by the Russian authorities when it was first published in1967 and intriguingly, it’s this early translation that the Daniel Schlusser Ensemble is using to form their piece for the stage. The novel is almost in a genre of its own making, a work of entrancingly  rich imaginative freedom. The Master and Margarita is a fantasia of dazzlingly sly jokes, references and parodies of the Stalinist regime, including the character of the devil (Woland) menacing 1930s Moscow, a plot involving biblical Jerusalem and Pontius Pilate, and the story of a writer who destroys his own work, and his martyred lover, and a Cat with a capital C.         

The Pussy Riot art activist trial features in Schlusser’s theatrical adaptation along with references to Putin and the current political and social state of affairs in Russia. How difficult has it been for the ensemble to find the right theatrical form for the work? “We’re still trying to find it,” the director admits. “We’re  flying towards opening; it’s real seat-of-our-pants stuff.” A residency at Theatreworks as part of their Hothouse Program last year gave the Ensemble time to work on M+M.  “We spent time honestly interrogating the script to work out what doesn’t work. We had the luxury of time to develop it; we made headway and were able to keep going down some paths far enough to find out what doesn’t work,” continues Schlusser. “It involves an intensity of labour.” The theatre-maker says that the biggest challenge for him has been meeting the surprises in the book along with finding voice for the novel’s highly idiosyncratic tone. “Large sections could be described as Kafkaesque, with experiences of mindless bureaucracy,” he notes. “There are stories within stories, moments of mass anarchy. It deals with a world of meta-theatre. There are big themes in the book, with the idea of the devil and the impossibility of art in a survival situation. And there’s the idiosyncratic love story, an extraordinary vision of a woman sacrificing herself for an artist. He’s a depressive, passive figure but he survives because he has the love of an amazing woman. She’s his muse incarnate. She’s more in love with the idea of the work he’s written. 

How literally will Schlusser’s play adhere to the events in the book? “If you sat with the book in your lap you’d be able to follow it,” the director answers. “Each chapter has its own subplot, its own thread. The idea is that the performers do start to embody the characters of the book but only very delicately. There are moments of massively anarchic action but there isn’t one individual or single figure creating those things. There are often very abstract poetic meditations on those events. The group of seven performers will slowly become identified as the central characters but this is not necessarily a narrative element – it’s bigger than that.” 

The ensemble is resisting the temptation to create a satirical or straight-up parodic piece. “It’s absolutely tempting but we’re resisting,” Schlusser adds. “Bulgakov is taking pot-shots at individuals and there is a temptation to update that story, but it’s a really dangerous game to play.” Not literally dangerous in the sense it would have been for Bulgakov, we hope; Schlusser means in a theatrical sense. “You can spend ten minutes on the internet and get plenty of laughs. There’s some brilliant work around Putin. We’ve just pushed very far into a zone we’re interested in. When I’m making a work I’m always looking for what is unique in this landscape,” he explains. “I ask ‘What am I making?’ M+M is kind of metaphysical and absurd, something of Ionesco with that sense of dread and oddness…wherever the craziness comes from.”

BY LIZA DEZFOULI