The Master and Margarita

Oskaras Koršunovas - Meistras ir Margarita

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The Oskaras Korsunovas Theatre, now called the OKT/Vilnius City Theatre emerged in 1999. It was created by director Oskaras Korsunovas (°1969). Korsunovas graduated in theatre directing at the Lithuanian Music Academy and he was 20 when he staged the first of many perfor-mances at the National Theatre of Lithuania. His theatre group, the Oskaro Korsunovo Teatras, is also dedicated to helping promising young talents fulfill their projects and to producing performances in theatre, film and dance.

In September 2000 the theatre premiered an adaptation of The Master and Margarita. Roman Pawlowski wrote about this piece in Gazeta Wyborcza: «Korsunovas staged Bulgakov’s novel as a dream of patients of a mental asylum. They dream of Satan’s visits to Moscow and events that happened in Jerusalem two thousand years ago. The action is set on the stage remi-niscent of an old community centre hall with a piano, an obligatory palm and a cleaning lady who washes the floor and grumbles at the actors. The genius of the dramatization is based on the simplicity of the concept: Behe-moth walks barefoot and sprinkles water around, the Master is buried un-der the ashes of his own manuscript, while Margarita’s flight turns into a love act. The performance contains a lot of burlesque means - e.g. the feast directed according to the principles of shadow theatre; however, the overall tonality of the performance is dark. At the end of the performance the Master and Margarita die and do not return to life between the Paradise and Hell, like Bulgakov conceived it. There is no house surrounded with trees, with fire cracking in the fireplace. Azazello, sipping vodka, completes the last ritual of ablution and ties the stiffening jaws together. Korsunovas knows more than Bulgakov who died 70 years ago. Perhaps manuscripts don’t burn, but people’s bodies burn like safety matches.»

The piece was co-produced by the Festival d'Avignon France, where it was premiered on July 18, 2000.