The magnificent chapel housed inside St Cuthbert’s Church is undoubtedly one of the finest Fringe venues available – but the acoustics and the cavernous space render it something of a challenge, to say the least. Mikhail Bulgakov’s 1967 novel The Master and Margarita is a dazzling piece of fiction, but notoriously difficult to translate onto the stage due to its expansive, fantastical and downright weird content. As such, St Cuthbert’s and the Sleepless Theatre Company’s production of The Master and Margarita is a marriage perhaps not made in Heaven or Hell… but appropriately, in Limbo.

Rather than attempt to tell the entirety of this sprawling story, the production has chosen to cherry-pick memorable scenes and use the full scope of the space to recreate them. What results is a frantic, interactive piece of theatre which constantly flits from one shady alcove of the chapel to another. By necessity, the audience are forced to relocate periodically, often craning over each other’s shoulders to get a decent glimpse of the action and sometimes actually being drawn into the production itself. The idea is innovative and ingenious, but older and less mobile audience members are visibly aggrieved, the constant breaking of the fourth wall becomes a little tiresome and much of the narrative can easily be lost on those who haven’t read the book.

This is in part due to the rapid pace of the dialogue and the constant shifting of the setting, but mostly due to the ungenerous acoustics in the building. In the end, the play’s biggest asset becomes its biggest adversary, as voices are rendered unintelligible whenever the actor faces away from the audience and frustratingly even more indecipherable when the volume is raised. These concerns aren’t helped by the proximity of the castle with its nightly cannon booms and the sporadic bursts of music, which often serve to drown out the dialogue.

Having said that, there is much to admire here. The expert use of lighting (only handheld torches and the occasional spotlight) and the ambitious use of space are commendable, while the actors all acquit themselves admirably. In particular, James Blake-Butler shines as the “foreign gentlemen”, while Matt Pope is a musical maestro and Iona Purvis complements his singing beautifully. Unfortunately, the execution doesn’t quite match the ambition, with large swathes of dialogue completely missed by the audience. As such, it’s not inconceivable that many of the attendees left utterly baffled by proceedings, ultimately resulting in an exhilarating but exasperating experience.