‘The Master and Margarita’ demolishes the fourth wall

Written prior to World War II and only released in the late 1960s when Soviet censorship loosened, “The Master and Margarita,” the novel by Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov, is now a beloved classic and has sparked a multitude of adaptations, but not without its devilish challenges.

The genre-melding dual narrative of the devil’s fantastical adventures in Stalinist Moscow is structured as a novel within a novel: Bulgakov juxtaposes the supernatural action in Russia with a realistic narrative set in historical Judea, detailing the meeting between Pontius Pilate and Yeshua, the Hebrew name for Jesus of Nazareth.

This structure makes the story difficult to transpose for visual media, which explains why it historically has been tackled mostly in experimental theater. However, the last decade has seen a marked increase in mainstream adaptations. The Bolshoi Ballet’s 2021 version, Australia’s Belvoir Street Theatre’s production in 2023 and Michael Lockshin’s 2024 film have all garnered popular and critical acclaim. 

This year, there were over 25 adaptations worldwide, two of which were mounted in Japan — one by Kyoto’s theater troupe Chiten in July and one by the New National Theatre, Tokyo (NNTT), which premiered Nov. 7, opening the season. 

The opening scene of the play a depiction of Pilate’s first meeting with Jesus. | NOBUHIKO HIKIJI | COURTESY OF NEW NATIONAL THEATRE, TOKYO

Satoshi Kamimura, incoming artistic director of drama for the NNTT, reworked British playwright Edward Kemp’s 2004 adaptation, translated by Soshi Odashima for the production.

Kamimura, a Bulgakov fan since his student days, staged “The White Guard,” another work by the author, in 2024, but “The Master and Margarita” posed an irresistible temptation. Drawing on Peter Brooks’ ideas on the immediacy of theater, Kamimura sought to draw audiences fully into Bulgakov’s magical world.

The director made the theatergoers part of the illusion, as this version switches the novel within a novel for a play within a play. With Kemp’s change and Kamimura’s direction, the Tokyo audience becomes a stand-in for the Moscow audience in the play.

This ties in with Bulgakov’s history, as he worked primarily in theater before his plays were banned, toiling on his “Master and Margarita” manuscript in secret for over two decades, at one point famously burning a first draft in despair. After his death in 1940, his widow hid the novel for another 26 years during a period of cultural repression. Bulgakov’s masterpiece proves with its publication that “manuscripts don’t burn” — one of many iconic phrases from the novel, and now play.

Kamimura opted for minimal scenography, the set being mostly an omnipresent, black wall. | NOBUHIKO HIKIJI | COURTESY OF NEW NATIONAL THEATRE, TOKYO

NNTT's “The Master and Margarita” is a reworking of British playwright Edward Kemp’s 2004 adaptation. | NOBUHIKO HIKIJI | COURTESY OF NEW NATIONAL THEATRE, TOKYO

“I deliberately chose a simple stage design — an empty space — to develop the production while drawing on the audience’s imagination,” Kamimura tells The Japan Times ahead of the premiere.

Kamimura is referring to a black wall he calls “imposing and repressive,” a constant presence across the back of the stage. There is no other set. Instead, with astute lighting, digital imaging, minimal props and unexpected reconfigurations of space, Kamimura engages the audience while using the wall to symbolize one of the work’s major themes: how art can become a force of cultural oppression — or an equally powerful escape from tyranny.

Kamimura also uses sound, costume and whimsical detail to make aspects of Bulgakov’s work more familiar to Japanese audiences. For example, Kamimura adds glowing red anime eyes and robotic voices to the traditional Christian demons of Bulgakov’s tale.

Third generation Korean-Japanese actor Songha, who goes by one name, plays the Master, a playwright who burns his own creation after critical backlash, and Maria Kano is Margarita, a woman who makes a Faustian deal to rescue her beloved Master from the demons of self-doubt and cowardice.

The 18-member ensemble cast embodies the convoluted layers and frantic pacing of the play. Each actor takes on multiple roles including demons, flying witches, mental asylum employees, a vampire maid, a talking cat, Soviet literati and Roman centurions.

The director of “The Master and Margarita,” Satoshi Kamimura, is the incoming artistic director of drama for the New National Theatre, Tokyo. | NOBUHIKO HIKIJI | COURTESY OF NEW NATIONAL THEATRE, TOKYO

The opening scene, a depiction of Pilate’s first meeting with Yeshua, devolves into a fraught, bickering rehearsal of the play within a play and the audience is thrust from ancient Jerusalem to a theater in Moscow. A change in lighting focuses on the audience as the onstage director addresses playgoers directly, as if they were technicians assisting in the rehearsal. This example of “backstage technique” forces the audience to engage beyond just passive observation.

This technique is later used to great effect during the devil’s infamous black magic show to end Act 1, where recorded voices seem to come from the seats, blurring the boundaries between the Tokyo audience and the fictitious Moscow theatergoers within the play.

With this exhilarating spin on a classic, Kamimura aims to celebrate creativity while engaging theatergoers and hopes to share the magic of theater.

“Art helps us to see or feel things a little differently, changing how we look at life when we return to our daily routines,” he says. “Theater should be accessible, a coming together of the entire community, not something that you only attend as a special occasion.”

NNTT is making an effort to attract new audiences. In addition to its discounted day tickets and senior and student discounts, it launched U39, reduced ticket prices for people 39 and under, and U25 with bigger discounts for those 25 and under, as well as special free performances for those under 20 as part of a new initiative dubbed “Theater Day.”

“The Master and Margarita” becomes the perfect vehicle to introduce Kamimura’s self-mandate to “update the narrative” of Tokyo’s arts scene, making live theater again a center of cultural community accessible to all.

“The Master and Margarita” play is on at the New National Theatre, Tokyo until Nov. 23. For more information, visit