Moving between the fervently atheistic Moscow of the 1930s and Jerusalem during the last days of Jesus’s life, Bulgakov’s violent, poetic maelstrom of a novel comes to life through performance, video, puppetry and music in Simon McBurney’s breathtaking adaptation.

A man travels from Moscow to Yalta at the speed of light. A writer burns his novel. A woman goes to hell and back to save her lover. All the while, Pontius Pilate argues with Jesus about the nature of human worth.

The enigmas that bind Bulgakov's violent, poetic maelstrom of a novel are one reason it is hailed as a masterpiece of Russian literature, remaining timeless and vital to this day.