In order to shine a light on and playfully question the relationship between the artist and political power, Frank Castorf calls on two figures. Two? Four? Many more than that. First: Mikhail Bulgakov, writer whose books weren't published, director whose plays weren't performed. Then: Molière, author, actor, and company director recognised and pampered by the court, until his downfall. Then their judges: Stalin for the former, Louis XIV for the latter. Multifaceted figures, they are also actual people that Molière and Bulgakov know personally. The Frenchman responds to a commission from the king with The Impromptu at Versailles. The Russian uses it as a reference to create, three hundred years later, The Cabal of Hypocrites and The Life of Monsieur de Molière. But the famous German director wouldn't content himself with Bulgakov's texts alone. He opens Die Kabale der Scheinheiligen to other greats, from Racine to Fassbinder, and enriches it with dialogues created during rehearsals... A way for him to comment on his own relationship to a German power that recently removed him as director of the Volksbühne, the “People's Theatre”. Now that everything seems to be allowed, what remains of censorship? Who does the artist have to entertain, to get the credit he deserves?
Born in Kiev in 1891, Mikhail Bulgakov first worked as a doctor, and wrote his first novels while serving in the White Army. Starting in 1920, he decided to dedicate himself to writing and to theatre. Condemned as pessimistic and reactionary by the regime, his first play led to many of his books and shows being denied publication or production. As an assistant director at the Moscow Art Theatre, he wrote The Cabal of Hypocrites (1930) and The Life of Monsieur de Molière (1932), in which he began his reflection about the relationship between art and power. He continued it in a satirical autobiography, A Dead Man's Memoir: A Theatrical Novel (1936), and expanded it fully in his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita, which he began writing in 1929, continuing to work on it until his death in 1940.
Distribution
Texts Mikhaïl Boulgakov, Pierre Corneille, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Molière, Jean Racine
Translation Thomas Reschke
Direction Frank Castorf
Dramaturgy Sebastian Kaiser
Music Sir Henry
Stage design Aleksandar Denic
Lights Lothar Baumgarte
Video Andreas Deinert, Mathias Klütz, Kathrin Krottenthaler
Sound Klaus Dobbrick, Tobias Gringel
Costumes Adriana Braga
With Jeanne Balibar, Jean-Damien Barbin, Frank Büttner, Jean Chaize, Brigitte Cuvelier, Georg Friedrich, Patrick Güldenberg, Sir Henry, Hann Hilsdorf, Rocco Mylord, Sophie Rois, Lars Rudolph, Alexander Scheer, Daniel Zillmann
Production
Production Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
With the support of Goethe Institut / Ministère allemand des Affaires étrangères for the 71st edition of the Festival d'Avignon
Le Roman de Monsieur de Molière by Mikhaïl Bulgakov, translated by Michel Pétris, is published by Éditions Gallimard
La Cabale des dévots by Mikhaïl Bulgakov, translation by Jean-Louis Chavarot, Françoise Flamant, Christiane Rouquet and Édith Scherrer, is published in Le Maître et Marguerite et autres romans suivi de Théâtre, Oeuvres II by Éditions Gallimard in the collection Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (n°505)