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Product Description
Product Description
Moscow, 1938. A dangerous place to have a sense of humour; even more so a sense of freedom. Mikhail Bulgakov, living among dissidents, stalked by secret police, has both. And then he's offered a poisoned chalice: a commission to write a play about Stalin to celebrate his sixtieth birthday.
Inspired by historical fact, Collaborators embarks on a surreal journey into the fevered imagination of the writer as he loses himself in a macabre and disturbingly funny relationship with the omnipotent subject of his drama.
Killing my enemies is easy. The challenge is to change the way they think, to control their minds. And I think I controlled yours pretty well. In years to come, I'll be able to say: Bulgakov? Yeah, we even trained him. He gave up. He saw the light. We broke him, we can break anybody. It's man versus monster, Mikhail. And the monster always wins.
John Hodge's blistering new play depicts a lethal game of cat and mouse through which the appalling compromises and humiliations inflicted on any artist by those with power are held up to scrutiny.
Collaborators by John Hodge premiered at the National Theatre, London, in October 2011. It is published here with an introduction by the author.
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1 review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Surprisingly funny and engaging, an excellent read
28 Dec 2011
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I shall start by saying I was introduced to this by watching a broadcast of the National Theatre perform this work a few months back (as a side note if they are thinking of releasing that on DVD I can guarantee at least one sale). I enjoyed the play so much that I wanted to pick it up. I finished the novel I was reading the other day, so I went ahead and got the kindle version of this product. I could not put the play down (despite being familiar with the story) and read it all yesterday after I bought it. I really recommend this piece.
General notes: The play embraces a nice dichotomy in employing humour whenever possible in the lives of people living in an oppressive state. The dark and insidious tones of the work overall are well balanced and accented by the usage of humour. It allows the play to carry meaning without making it too heavy. The plot is engaging and easy to follow without being simplistic or formulaic. The characterisation focuses on a few core people to the story, while most supporting roles are fairly two dimensional. Take that as you will, I usually enjoy stories with excellent characterisation of many roles, but only when it supports the story. This story is best to focus on the two or three characters that need depth.
Kindle edition: I got the kindle edition, and the formatting was excellent. There were only a handful of things that did not quite show up right (truncated words, a missing space, a normal word that should have been bold) but these were few and far between, easily on par with typos in a print copy. I enjoy the kindle format's ability to easily underline and makes notes, and used that to great length in this piece.
Reader's note **possible spoilers**: I particularly liked reading it after having seen the performance, it was almost like a rereading. I knew the general plot and could catch instances of foreshadowing and so forth. In particular I advise paying close attention to the nature of "the play within a play" motif present throughout the piece. The play is bookended by Moliere and shows initially the feeling of defiance unto death, while finally it shows the tragedy that is being crushed by the state as an enemy. Grigori comments "its man versus monster" and Bulgakov responds that "monster wins" talking of the play. In the end Joseph says "its man versus monster and monster always wins" talking about reality, yet indirectly emphasising the use of Moliere. Also pay attention to the play Young Joseph throughout, it will mirror what is happening in Collaborators. For instance it starts with Joseph telling the seminarians "you can educate me, but you cannot break me" mirroring Bulgakov's view that his circumstance can be used to get his play unbanned, but he will not change his mind about the state and its actions. The next scene in Young Joseph is that Joseph infiltrated the oil refinery mirroring Joseph infiltrating Bulgakov's confidence (they are on friendly speaking terms and have accepted working together). And so forth, paying close attention I can see parallels at all points with the action in Collaborators and the plays it contains. I really enjoyed that more subtle nuance with the reading. If anyone is interested we could start a discussion below.
tl;dr This is an excellent work that blends humour and intrigue to deliver a powerful story about the nature of principles, oppression, and corruption. There are multiple layers to the piece that allow it to be enjoyed with repeat readings which compliments the relatively short read (being a play).
General notes: The play embraces a nice dichotomy in employing humour whenever possible in the lives of people living in an oppressive state. The dark and insidious tones of the work overall are well balanced and accented by the usage of humour. It allows the play to carry meaning without making it too heavy. The plot is engaging and easy to follow without being simplistic or formulaic. The characterisation focuses on a few core people to the story, while most supporting roles are fairly two dimensional. Take that as you will, I usually enjoy stories with excellent characterisation of many roles, but only when it supports the story. This story is best to focus on the two or three characters that need depth.
Kindle edition: I got the kindle edition, and the formatting was excellent. There were only a handful of things that did not quite show up right (truncated words, a missing space, a normal word that should have been bold) but these were few and far between, easily on par with typos in a print copy. I enjoy the kindle format's ability to easily underline and makes notes, and used that to great length in this piece.
Reader's note **possible spoilers**: I particularly liked reading it after having seen the performance, it was almost like a rereading. I knew the general plot and could catch instances of foreshadowing and so forth. In particular I advise paying close attention to the nature of "the play within a play" motif present throughout the piece. The play is bookended by Moliere and shows initially the feeling of defiance unto death, while finally it shows the tragedy that is being crushed by the state as an enemy. Grigori comments "its man versus monster" and Bulgakov responds that "monster wins" talking of the play. In the end Joseph says "its man versus monster and monster always wins" talking about reality, yet indirectly emphasising the use of Moliere. Also pay attention to the play Young Joseph throughout, it will mirror what is happening in Collaborators. For instance it starts with Joseph telling the seminarians "you can educate me, but you cannot break me" mirroring Bulgakov's view that his circumstance can be used to get his play unbanned, but he will not change his mind about the state and its actions. The next scene in Young Joseph is that Joseph infiltrated the oil refinery mirroring Joseph infiltrating Bulgakov's confidence (they are on friendly speaking terms and have accepted working together). And so forth, paying close attention I can see parallels at all points with the action in Collaborators and the plays it contains. I really enjoyed that more subtle nuance with the reading. If anyone is interested we could start a discussion below.
tl;dr This is an excellent work that blends humour and intrigue to deliver a powerful story about the nature of principles, oppression, and corruption. There are multiple layers to the piece that allow it to be enjoyed with repeat readings which compliments the relatively short read (being a play).
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