Theater Waidspeicher (DE)

In Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel that enjoys cult status far beyond Russia’s borders, the devil is loose and causes chaos and turmoil in Stalin’s Moscow of the 1930’s. A talking cat rides a tram, bank notes and people disappear in the variety theatre, the chairman of the literary club is missing. An author writes a story about Pontius Pilate and meets the love of his life, Margarita, who becomes a witch and flies over Moscow. Good and evil, God and the Devil, life and death all clash with each other in this Faustian story. A production for all senses – diverse emotional reactions guaranteed!

Mikhail Bulgakov spent twelve years writing his masterpiece, which could only be published after severe censorship in 1966/67. The production focuses on the main characters and scenes of the novel. Five puppeteers on stage perform as actors with and without masks and with two-dimensional cardboard string puppets in movable boxes.

Theater Waidspeicher is a professional ensemble puppet theatre. It was founded in 1979 as the puppet theatre department of the Städtische Bühnen Erfurt – since 1993 it has been run as a non-profit organization. The repertoire encompasses material from various epochs and genres, it ranges from fairy tales and traditional stories to modern narrative theatre, from literature classics to adaptations of contemporary children’s books and modern drama.