The Reinterpreted Master and Margarita Will Be Seen by Audiences on October 19 at the National Theatre as Part of the Café Budapest Festival

In connection with the play, director Zoltán Balázs gave an interview. This time, the Maladype Theatre invites the audience on an adventure as part of the Café Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival. Under Balázs Zoltán’s direction, in collaboration with the Radu Stanca National Theatre from Sibiu, the play The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov’s classic, will be staged in two versions on October 19. We spoke with Balázs Zoltán about the creation of this co-production and the reinterpretation of the play, during which he revealed that after a five-year break, he will soon return to the stage.

- Your relationship with the Radu Stanca National Theatre in Sibiu goes back quite a while, but the Master and Margarita coming to the Café Budapest Festival marks a completely new dimension. How did the idea for this joint production come about?

- Thanks to our production of Leonce and Lena, which in 2011 not only opened the program but also achieved great success at the Sibiu Theatre Festival, I was invited to hold a workshop for the artists of Radu Stanca. The idea of creating a joint production emerged after that. Talks about possible collaboration had already begun in Bucharest, where we had been performing with King Ubu, so when our play Egg(s)Hell was also invited to the Sibiu festival, there was no turning back. Initially, I hesitated because I knew it would not be an easy task to create such a large-scale collaboration amid the various constraints our company faces, but the people from Sibiu were enthusiastic and persistent. Constantin Chiriac, the director of the theatre, then asked me to create a list of ten plays I preferred, from which one would be chosen for me to direct at Radu Stanca. At the top of the list was Bulgakov's classic The Master and Margarita. When he heard this, he asked me not to read further, as it had always been his dream to have the play staged in his theatre by a “daring” director. A curious coincidence is that the costume and set designer for the co-production is Velica Panduru, the daughter of Catalina Buzoianu, who was the first in Romania to direct The Master and Margarita. The production, which premiered at Teatrul Mic, remains one of the iconic performances in Romanian theatre.

- Why did you place The Master and Margarita at the top of the list?

- It's a complex, multi-layered work that helps one face uncomfortable truths and raises sensitive questions that a person, as they approach the halfway point of their life, might want to find answers to. This is not the first time I've staged such a piece; I have always been interested in these kinds of works, and my career has been marked by confrontation, constant questioning, a search for connections, new paths, and opportunities. Moreover, The Master and Margarita expresses timeless ideas that fascinate me—such as when Jesus says that telling the truth is easy and pleasant... What’s amazing about this novel is that it associates boldly, so the true story never exists in me as the director or in the actors, but it emerges in the collective medium of this social game—not in the performance itself, but in the audience or the “benevolent reader”, as Bulgakov puts it. The most exciting part is that they finish it, they continue it, or, if it happens, open a new story.

- Is there a specific inspiration or recipe for what motivates you?

- I love change. Even when it seems like nothing is happening around us, the possibility arises to redefine our essence and goals internally. To this day, I am driven by the desire for freedom and curiosity. The constant experimentation, pushing boundaries, and expressing myself in unique ways makes it difficult to define and categorize my work. I enjoy inviting the audience on an adventure. The reason I was interested in the Romanian-Hungarian co-production of The Master and Margarita is that, starting from the novel's vast world, I could think about unknown genres and theatrical solutions. This led to two versions, which are connected but differ in their approach to key scenes.

- This adventurous, experimental spirit also characterizes the theatre in Sibiu, as the director could easily have invited world-famous directors like Silviu Purcărete, but instead, he entrusted a young Hungarian director with the project. How did that feel?

- It gave me great freedom, but also a huge responsibility to realize my vision accurately. However, the artistic environment provided the opportunity to blend theatre with music and film in the stage adaptation.

- So much so that two versions of the play were created...

- It happened naturally during reading, and I somewhat regret that only two versions were created—I would have liked to try several more (laughs). The two performances don’t differ drastically from one another: the essence remains the same, but there is a point where the story takes a different direction. In the Romanian version, giving space to metacommunicative expression, a fantastic actress, Mariana Mihu, plays Woland using sign language. In the other version, Maladype actor Ákos Orosz plays the same role in a polyglot manner, in Romanian and English. Their different temperaments, genders, ages, and acting solutions shape the relationship between the actors playing the Master and Margarita (Marius Turdeanu and Ofelia Popii) differently. In both versions, these actors also portray Pilate and Jesus—this might be unique in the history of the play’s adaptations. On stage, 26 actors are needed, and their collective focus intensifies the material’s density, with individual transformations gaining emphasis. During my reading of the novel—which was adapted for the stage with the help of Ilona Kiss, a Bulgakov expert—a reductive and an integrative line emerged in my mind. One lets go, the other integrates reality into the story. In one version, the Master and Margarita break free, leaving behind the illusory, false world, while in the other, they integrate reality, making it a part of their created universe. The boundaries blur, but which path they take and how the possible reading of the story is determined in the end depends on the differences between the two versions.

- You mentioned that it is important to live with constant questions directed inward. What are the thoughts or questions that occupy your mind right now?

- The question of where I come from and where I am going. This is an eternal, yet particularly relevant theme in both my personal life and the life of my theatre company. It’s not easy to keep Maladype alive and functioning on a daily basis, to create the right material conditions for our collective growth, and to challenge the actors with intellectual stimuli that will push them to give their best energy in return. After a five-year hiatus, I will soon return to the stage, and this also preoccupies me... Since Hamlet, I have accumulated so much to say, and I’ve encountered a personal topic that touches me, one where I can speak in the first person. I believe in constant self-reflection, in the power of thoughts that trigger each other, and in the belief that the human mind cannot be controlled. Anyone who tries to do so commits a crime.

Kulturpart, 2013

Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek