Reviews for The early plays of Mikhail Bulgakov

The average rating for The early plays of Mikhail Bulgakov based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-07-09 00:00:00 Janet Lee I read a different edition and in Russian, primarily because I wanted to know what "Zoya's Apartment" was all about. I had seen the play in a Russian-language theatre and, Russian not being my first language, was completely baffled, so decided to read it for further enlightenment. Now that I've read it, I feel I'm not much better off; I see no reason to put on a play like this today. And if it is to show confusion and greed in the Soviet Union of the 1920s, I'd say Nikolay Erdman's "Suicide" is much more illuminating and definitely more amusing. The array of characters is puzzling for a start: there is a drug addict, two Chinese opportunist drug dealers, one of whom commits murder, a bureaucrat, a wheeler-dealer, several ambitious women. Amidst the lot Zoya tries to survive by setting up a fashion studio, but she is not helped by the circumstances. Maybe the play has simply survived because it is by Bulgakov.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-04-10 00:00:00 Justin Montgomery I've now read practically everything of Bulgakov's written in English, including a biography of him, a biography by him and a book of his letters. No doubt he was a great playwright, but the impact of these plays is lessened on the page and without the specific historical context to understand the minutiae. 'The Days of the Turbins' is adapted from Bulgakov's novel The White Guard, but pales in comparison to the novel. 'Zoya's Apartment' is an amusing piece about the unseemly goings on of a certain madame and her 'workshop' in the wee hours. 'Flight' may well be a great work, but I found it extremely elliptical and thus I ended up skipping it. 'The Crimson Island' was my favourite, a play-within-a-play that satirises the revolution and makes a number of unsubtle hints about the playwright's plight. 'A Cabal of Hypocrites' is similarly pointed in its comparison of historical epochs and their associated toadies. Each play has a useful contextual introduction to go with it, which I found useful. In short, this is good for Bulgakov completionists or those interested specifically in his dramatic works..