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THE MASTER AND MARGARITA 
at CONSTELLATION THEATRE COMPANY
The Master and Margarita is brimming over with an abundance of fun and profundity that merges into a grand operatic experience.  Set in 20th century Moscow, it includes the biblical story of Pontius Pilate with the Faustian tale, told with Kantian inquiry plus a good measure of anti-Stalin satire, with music and wild dancing throughout.
The Master  (Alexander Strain) is a writer, a lover, a philosopher —Margarita (Armanda Forstrom) his mistress and muse. 
He has written a play about a crucial moment in religious history: Pontius Pilot (Jesse Terrill). This does not sit well with the head of Moscow’s theater Berlioz (Emily Whitworth) and her sidekick Ivan, a critic (Omar D. Cruz). She is planning to leave her husband, an astronomer no less, for them to run away together when The Master disappears.
Now whether you believe in the devil or not, does not determine whether he exists as he now appears as Professor Woland (Scott Ward Abernathy), accompanied by Fagott (Dallas Tolention),  Behemoth (Louis E. Davis),  and Azazello (Anna Lynch).
Also it does not matter if you believe that black cats are from the devil or can stand on two legs as tall as a human because this black cat, despite the rather bizarre outfit, is instantly believable as part of the devil’s trio.
Though The Master and Margarita live in turbulent times, their love is eternal,  surviving incredible events from his stay in a hellish insane asylum to hers at a party in a Moscow apartment with guests from hell. 
Overheard leaving the show:  “I am going to get the book now and read it” —What a wonderful compliment to Constellation’s production of  Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic novel, adapted for the stage by Edward Kemp.
For while there have been dozens of adaptions of The Master and Margarita in many formats, there is something about a live performance at Constellation.  Here the curtain never goes down  (their stage is in open space )—  for here  there is no curtain between the ideas they present on stage and real life.
The Master and Margarita at Constellation Theatre, Washington DC, until March 

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