Skip to main content
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 

Popular posts from this blog

  Once is here again!   The Brooklyn Gallery Players reach into the treasure chest of great musicals to bring Once alive and on stage in Brooklyn (until to December 17, 2023). Director Mark Gallagher , and Music Directors David Fletcher and Brendon McCray have crafted a vibrant production, seamlessly integrating the 15 member cast in roles  as both actors and musicians. Set in Dublin, the  formula for the poignant love triangle  is simple. Patrick Newhart  plays Guy, an Irish musician who has given up  on love as he sings the award winning classic  Falling.  Newhart mastered the bombastic busking guitar style and performed each of his songs with intensity and passion Sophie Smith-Brody  is Girl,  a Czech woman  who will inspire him to try again both in  love and with music. Smith-Brody performed each of her disparate songs with aplomb,  from the opening classical piece to her plaintive solos – If You Want Me and The Hill.  The performance starts  with an “ impromptu”  p
Read more
               TINA - THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL  at The National Theatre              In the 1970s, I  had spent weeks climbing around ruins in Peru.  I heard music of the Andes all over.  I  was  finally at  Machu Picchu to spend the night so I could get up early  and climb to see the sunrise from the top of the ruins.   As I got to steps by the gatekeepe,  I could hear his boom box blaring across the Andes “I Wanna Take You Higher”  by Tina Turner.   You don’t have to go climbing the Andes to hear her songs — Tina-The Tina Turner Musical  isright here  at the National Theatre, Washington DC,  until  Oct. 23, 2022.    The show has broken all records with the awards it has received since in premiered in April 2018 in London.  No one questions that Tina is a musical legend but  for this show  accolades to  the stars Naomi Rodgers and Zurin Villanueva who alternate in the  spectacular role.   At every performance there will be people  who remember seeing Tina “back when” and
Read more
  Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando — sparkling wit and ageless wisdom —   at   Constellation Theatre — gone but not forgotten In Virginia Woolf’s Orlando A Biography ,  the eponymous hero undergoes many changes over the centuries— from roles in society and relationships to sex change.  Since the time travel gender bending work was published in 1928, this his/her story has continued to undergone adaptions to its original form, from analytical scholarly critiques to crowd pleasing  movies and stage plays.  Constellation Theatre Company continued  the tradition with its amazing presentation of Sarah Ruhl’s narrative play Orlando .    Five actors  take on dozens of roles as characters or in the  chorus to keep the story at its rapid pace,  condensing events spanning almost five centuries into 100 minutes.   Orlando (Mary Myers) is  ever the aristocrat whether as a page in the court of  Queen Elizabeth I (Alan Naylor)  or involved with a mysterious Russian princess (Edmee - Marie Faal) or pursued
Read more