Yesterday was kind of a full day for me. I went to a matinee of the Master and Margarita by the Synetic Theater company.

Many of you have had me recommend this book to you over the years. I first read it in 1993. It was not a great translation and it was of a censored version of the book, but it gave me at least a taste.

The show I saw yesterday was one of the most stunning things I'd ever seen. It seemed to me an impossible feat to take a book as complex as the Master and Margarita and condense it into a show that came in under 2 hours. What really amazed me was that my reaction to most of the production was, well, highly emotional to say the least. I was practically sobbing by the end of the production.

The Master and Margarita is, among other things, a tragic love story. It is a lot more than that, but the love story is at the heart of it. The love story is based on Bulgakov's relationship with his own wife (third wife) who was the inspiration for the character of Margarita. The scenes that featured both of them were the ones that evoked the most visceral reaction from me which was amazing to me because the scenes were largely wordless.

I will say, having read the novel, I saw a lot more context in the show than I would have had I not read the novel. This is not to say that reading the novel is essential to experiencing the show. I just couldn't help but feel profound emotion over the fact that this was a tragic tale written not only over a long period of time, but finished literally on his death bed. A passage from the final chapter has always haunted me:

"Gods, my gods! How sad the earth is at eventide! How mysterious are the mists over the swamps. Anyone who has wandered in these mists, who has suffered a great deal before death, or flown above the earth, bearing a burden beyond his strength knows this. Someone who is exhausted knows this. And without regret he forsakes the mists of the earth, its swamps and rivers, and sinks into the arms of death with a light heart knowing that death alone..."

This passage, left intentionally unfinished apparently (The Mirra Ginsburg translation does finish it saying "death alone can bring surcease" which doesn't really make sense to me but whatever), was dictated by Bulgakov to his wife on his death bed. He knew he was going to die when he wrote that. The fact that he also had suffered greatly from depression for a number of years from being stifled by the Soviet system he frequently satirized also makes this passage more poignant to me. At the same time, the beauty of the novel, the words (translated granted, but I have a good translation) and the story itself were so wonderfully reflected in the stage show that I couldn't help but lose myself to it.

After the show I went to see a hockey game. I stupidly didn't note on my calendar that there was a hockey game at 5. I considered not going, but I didn't want to waste the ticket. I should have just had Lisa get another person to go with her. I love hockey, but it was frankly banal after what I'd just experienced, and trying to explain it to Lisa was simply impossible. I'm not even really able to convey what I felt here. Suffice to say, I am rereading the novel, and also going to rewatch the miniseries based on it. Yes, there's a miniseries. It was made in 2005 by a Russian director, Vladimir Bortko who had also done Heart of a Dog (another Bulgakov novel) more than 2 decades earlier. His version of Master and Margarita is a noble attempt to capture what Bulgakov wrote accurately and I applaud the effort. Frankly, I think that Synetic had the right idea in turning it into a multilayered artistic experience that didn't so much try to duplicate what was in the book so much as take it and consume it with movement, costumes, etc.

Suffice it to say, if you have the time and some bucks, you should really try to see this show. It's easily the most amazing thing I've seen all year, and I've seen some good stuff folks.