Last Thursday evening, our group went to the Moscow Art Theater (MXT) to watch a 3.5-hour romp through Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita adapted to a very modern stage (the play’s set was inspired by the Moscow metro system). We were especially primed for the evening’s production because not only are we reading Master and Margarita and visiting some of the locations where the novel takes place, we’ve been learning about the history and influence of MXT as a cultural institution in Moscow.
The first thing we noticed as we worked our way through the crowded street toward the theater was the building’s architecture. The striking Art Nouveau facade was the work of architect Fyodor Schechtel, who reconstructed an existing building, the old Liazonov Theater, to create a home for the new company in 1902. Last week, we saw some of Schechtel’s other buildings, including the mansions he built for the wealthy merchants Savva Morozov (MXT’s main investor) and Pavel Ryabushinsky, so we were able to recognize some of the architect’s motifs. Even though the theater façade doesn’t have the playful asymmetry or stained glass of the Ryabushinsky mansion, we noticed that the details of the windows and accent ledges are very similar. Instead of Art Nouveau stained glass, the MXT façade features a modernist relief sculpture (“The Wave” by Anna Golubkina) depicting human figures and faces emerging from abstract wave forms.
Schechtel also designed the theater’s interior, making the entire building into part of the theater-going experience. As we walked through the foyer, we saw walls decorated with the motif of The Seagull, a symbol of the company’s first major success, Chekhov’s Chaika (The Seagull), produced in 1898. The theater’s curtain is normally also decorated with The Seagull emblem, but we didn’t see it, because the modern, metro-themed production used a sheet-metal “curtain.” Schechtel’s modern design complemented the new and groundbreaking ideas that formed the philosophical foundation for the theater company. MXT was founded in 1898 by theater directors Konstantin Stanislovsky and Vladimr Nemirovich-Danchenko, who were dissatisfied with the melodramatic theatrical style popular at the time, and wanted to present psychologically realistic drama (Brooks, 157). Stanislovsky’s philosophy of acting reflects a larger movement towards naturalism in Russian art at the end of the 19th century, which we noticed in the portraits we saw at the Tretyakov Gallery. We also read about one group of painters in St. Petersburg known as the Peredvizhniki (the Wanderers), who attempted to portray realistic images of Russian life during the 1870’s and 1880’s (Lincoln, 202).
The “system” of techniques Stanislovsky developed to portray realistic characters by drawing on actors’ own experiences and emotions was the inspiration for method acting, popularized by American director Lee Strasberg in the 1930’s. We were able to see these techniques in action in the MXT production, since the lead roles, the Master and Margarita, were played by method actors. Because the director chose to emphasize the perspective of these two characters in his adaptation, it was important that they be more psychologically developed than the supporting characters, like Woland’s entourage and the theater staff. These characters were basically flat, providing comic relief and plot progression but little else.
In addition to psychologically realistic acting, another one of Stanislovsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko’s goals in founding MXT was the “social mission” of making theater more accessible to a working-class audience (Brooks 157). Because of funding difficulties, however, this goal was never fully realized. Today, like all Moscow theaters, MXT sells tickets that are far from “bargain-priced”—we paid 1000 rubles, or about $30, for our group-rate, advanced-purchase, top-balcony seats. However, we did see a fairly wide range of audience members, including some in fancy suits and dresses, and others (mostly young people) in jeans and sneakers.
We were very lucky to be able to get tickets to this performance since this was one of only two performances of Master and Margarita during our entire stay in Moscow. This is the norm in Moscow because most theaters, including MXT are repertory theaters. Repertory theater companies have a repertoire of about 20-30 plays that are performed on a rotating basis, sometimes for many years. Currently, MXT has a repertoire of twenty-five plays, including the theater’s first major success, The Seagull.
Bibliography
Brumfeld, William Craft. “Fedor Shekhtel: Aesthetic Idealism in Modernist Architecture.” The Origins of Modernism in Russian Architecture. 120-122. University of California Press E-Books Collection. Web. April 23, 2012.
Lincoln, Bruce. Sunlight at Midnight: St. Petersburg and the Rise of Modern Russia. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
Brooke, Caroline. Moscow: A Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press. 2006.
Moscow Art Theater. “History.” http://www.mxat.ru/english/history/
