Mikhail Bulgakov on the American Stage Michael Yurieff* The success of Bulgakov's plays in America depends on the actors, the directors, and on the quality of the translation and adaptation. At issue are the central questions: will the actors succeed.in conveying Bulgakov's world and the director's concept? Does the translation or adaptation hurt this process? And, even under the most favorable conditions, can the spirit of Bulgakov be conveyed to an American audience? From the brief history of Bulgakov on the American stage presented here, it will become clear that American audiences know only Bulgakov the novelist and have not yet been acquainted with Bulgakov the playwright. First, I would like to outline the reception Bulgakov's dramas have received in the American press—a topic impossible to exhaust here—and then focus on four Bulgakov productions in America: Andrei Serban's New York production of The Master and Margarita4, Yuri Lyubimov's rehearsals of The Master and Margarita with American actors in Boston; Boris Morozov's New York production of Zoya's Apartment; and my production of Zoya's Apartment at the Russian School of Norwich University. On November 7, 1926 the first review of a Bulgakov play, Days of the Turbins at the Moscow Art Theater, appeared in the New York Times. In this review, entitled "Red Intelligentsia Is Stirred by Play," correspondent Walter Duranty described the play's content and the reaction of one young commu- nist: at the beginning of the performance he sneered audibly, but at the end he wept.1 * Michael Yurieff is Assistant Professor of Russian and Russian Theater at Norwich University in Vermont. He has taught twentieth-century Russian culture and civilization at the University of Vermont. 1 Walter Duranty, "Red Intelligentsia Stirred by Play," New York Times, 7 Nov. 1926, p. 20, col. 1. 133 On December 16, 1928, also in the New York Times, a review of the premiere of Bulgakov's The Crimson Island at the Kamerny Theater came out. In it, the correspondent noted the difference between an opening night in the Soviet theater and one in the American theater. In Moscow, he wrote, the premiere of a play by the most popular playwright was announced in small print and without any advance notice.2 The American premiere of a Bulgakov play occurred at Yale University in March 1934. This production ran under the title In the Days of the Turbins and was staged by the Dramatic Association of Yale University. The reviewer, a staff correspondent for the New York Times? found the play weak in its construction and "hopelessly dull" in places. In general he praised the actors, but noted the misfortune of casting students in much older roles. The famous impresario Sol Hurok produced Bulgakov's The White Guard in Russian at the Majestic Theater on Broadway in March 1935. Former Moscow Art Theater actors performed in the play, including Andrias Jilinsky. The New York Times reviewer, who had described the Yale production of the previous year, liked the acting on Broadway better, but he repeated his criticism of the play, adding that it was wooden.4 Thirty years later, in February 1965, Hurok brought the Moscow Art Theater production of Dead Souls, Bulgakov's adaptation of Gogol's novel, to New York. With the help of simultaneous translation on transistors, American audiences were reacquainted with the Moscow Art Theater.5 The tour was a success. In 1967, after The Master and Margarita was published in Moscow, two English language translations of the novel appeared. One was more precise, but based on the censored version, which had some seventy pages cut. The other was of the full text, but with many errors. For example, "deep galoshes" were translated as "blue galoshes," and the phrase, "It dawned on me," became "The autumn drew on." In spite of this, Bulgakov's popularity in America grew after the release of his novel. In February 1978, Zoya's Apartment was staged at the Gene Frankel Workshop Theater in New York. In his opening night review, Richard Eder of the New York Times praised Bulgakov, but criticized the poor training of some actors. "A number of the actors do not have the training or the discipline to carry out the expressionist tableaux," he wrote. "An initial pantomime in which these denizens of the lower depths writhe about and end up silently screaming is effortful rather than Suggestive." "On the other hand," he 1 "Revolutionary Drama Burlesqued," New York Times, 16 Dec. 1928, III, p. 3, col. 5. 3 "Yale Group Gives New Russian Play," New York Times, 7 Mar. 1934, p. 22, col. 5. 4 "The Play: The White Guard," New York Times, 7 Mar. 1935, p. 27, col. 5. 5 Howard Taubman, "The Theater: Visitors from Russia," New York Times, 6 Feb. 1965, p. 34, col. 1. 134 continued, "the first rate performances by several of the leading actors help immensely."6 The play closed after 12 performances. The same year, at the Public Theater in New York, the Rumanian director Andrei Serban staged his adaptation of The Master and Margarita for Joseph Papp. Also in the '78-'79 season, Anatoli Efros staged Monsieur de Moliere based on Bulgakov's A Cabal of Hypocrites at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. And David Morgan's adaptation of Bulgakov's A Cabal of Hypocrites was produced at the Colonnades Theatre Lab in New York, where it was renamed Moliere In Spite of Himself. No reviews were available, but two years later, in March 1981, the same adaptation—but a different production altogether—was shown in Stamford, Connecticut by the Hartman Theater Company. Though Mel Gussow, the New York Times theater critic, praised some of the actors, he criticized the adaptation. First, the adaptation included a large number of other works, including a film biography about Bulgakov directed by Ariane Mnouchkine. In addition, Bulgakov's name as the play's author was almost left out. His name only appeared in "tiny print at the bottom of the title page of the program"7 where it said that the adaptation was "based in part" on Bulgakov's play. This was perhaps a fortuitous omission. If Gussow's critique of the adaptation was accurate, Bulgakov's name was at least distanced from the production. Three years later, in the '84-'85 season, another adaptation of a Bul- gakov work appeared. This time The Heart of a Dog was chosen, and by all accounts Frank Galati's production, which premiered at the Northlight Theater in Illinois, was a success. The next season saw Frank Galati's adaptation staged at the Detroit Repertory Theater in Michigan, and in February 1988 it ran in New York at the Alchemy Theater Company. This time the New York Times reviewer praised the play, but criticized the direction and the weak acting of some performers.8 Here, the adaptation was a plus, but the director and the actors apparently failed to convey Bulgakov's world to their audience. While The Heart of a Dog was taking its circuitous route to New York, The Royal Comedians, yet another work based on Bulgakov's A Cabal of Hypocrites, was staged at the Actors Theater in Louisville, Kentucky as part of the "Classics in Context" festival during the '85-'86 season. The following season saw a production of The Black Cross at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater in Wisconsin, billing Bulgakov as the author, with Barbara Field as ' Richard Eder, "Stage: 'Zoya' Set in Russia of 1926," New York Times, 15 Feb. 1978, Sec. C, p. 23. 7 Mel Gussow, "Stage: Kiley in Revision of Bulgakov's 'Moliere'," New York Times, 20 Mar. 1981, Sec. C, p. 9. 8 Wilborn Hampton, "Stage: 'Heart of a Dog'," New York Times, 1 Feb. 1988, Sec. C, p. 28. 135 translator. It is unclear on which of Bulgakov's works this production was based. At this time, Lyubimov was rehearsing The Master and Margarita at the American Repertory Theatre in Boston. In 1990, the second American adaptation of The Heart of a Dog was staged in New York at the Classic Stage Company. Mel Gussow was again the reviewer, and in spite of the loose adaptation, he found that the work preserved the character of Bulgakov's novel. To him the direction resembled French farce, "reminding one that one of the Russian author's best-known plays is Moliere In Spite of Himself. "9 Here Gussow confused the title of Bulgakov's A Cabal of Hypocrites with the title of the Stamford production Moliere In Spite of Himself, which he reviewed in 1981. Again, a situation was created where the adaptation may have left something to be desired, but the actors and director succeeded in conveying the spirit of Bulgakov to an American audience. What follows is a study of four Bulgakov productions in America, showing in more specific terms the range and quality of American stagings of Bulgakov's works: a Russian language student production, a workshop production Off-Broadway, rehearsals at a regional theater, and a full produc- tion on Broadway. In the mid-seventies, Joseph Papp, the founder of the Public Theater and the Shakespeare Festival in New York, invited the young director Andrei Serban to work for him. Serban staged Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard at Lincoln Center for Papp and was preparing several projects. He became acquainted with Bulgakov's creative work in Rumania where he was given a Rumanian translation of The Master and Margarita as a gift. He read the novel and was delighted. Papp agreed to a low budget production.