This production was developed in partnership with The Court Theatre Training Company, The Courtyard Hoxton and Buckinghamshire New University in May 2016. The ensemble worked from the Alma Classics recent translation by Hugh Alpin to explore, deconstruct and then reconstruct the narrative.

“Comrade Korotkov works at The Main Central Depot of Match Materials as chief clerk. One day, he makes an easy but fatal error which catapults him into a surreal, mind blowing world of twins, match boxes, lost jobs, mistaken identities, stolen papers, unrequited love, Moscow’s absurd and labyrinthine bureaucracy, bedevilment, fire engines and soldiers’ underwear.”

“This early satirical story was first published in 1924 and incurred the wrath of pro-Soviet critics. Mikhail Bulgakov became one of his era’s most brilliant and daring writers. His career was plagued by Soviet censorship and his masterpiece The Master and Margarita , was never published in his lifetime”. (Alma Classics)

The production used physical theatre, dance, song, puppetry, object theatre, design, light and sound to explore the surreal nightmare that overwhelms Korotkov.