Very witty, engaging, and thought provoking, I definitely enjoyed reading this one. I just really wish I could have seen this play onstage, because all the stage directions point to this being a visually interesting (and funny!) production as well.

A fun and funny play about Stalin's insistence that Bulgakov write a play detailing his own early years, and then writing a largely false version himself. Despite having read 'Master & Margarita' in my youth, I really don't know all that much about either Bulgakov OR Stalin, which probably blunted some of the impact of the play for me.

From BBC Radio 3 - Drama on 3:
Directed by Sir Nicholas Hytner. Alex Jennings stars as Mikhail Bulgakov and Simon Russell Beale as Stalin in the acclaimed National Theatre production.

Moscow, 1938: A dangerous place to have a sense of humour, even more so a sense of freedom. The writer Mikhail Bulgakov, living among the dissidents, stalked by secret police, has both. After 3 years rehearsal his new play about Moliere has just opened, and may be just about to close unless he accepts a commission from the secret police to write a play to celebrate Stalin's sixtieth birthday. A poison chalice which he struggles to accept, until he receives an offer of help from the most unlikely quarter.

Based on historical fact, John Hodge's blistering new play depicts a lethal game of cat and mouse as the writer loses himself in a macabre and disturbingly funny relationship with the omnipotent subject of his drama.