THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR. To 10 September.
Chichester
THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR
by Nikolai Gogol translated and adapted by Alistair Beaton
Chichester Festival Theatre In rep to 10 September 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu & Sat 2pm
Audio-described 18 July, 23 July 2pm, 29 July, 20 August 2pm
BSL Signed: 27 July
Runs 2hr 55min One interval
TICKETS: 01243 781312
www.cft.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 July
A production that starts well and goes on getting better.Though it's about a corrupt and backwards small-town society in vast, backwards 1836 Russia, Gogol's comedy is ferociously modern. Yet it rarely has the chilling contemporary force of Martin Duncan's new production, helped by Alistair Beaton's direct-from-Russian script which retains Gogol's rough edges and conversational absurdities.
In Gogol's world humanity itself is on the edge, and an inspection of local institutions is set to push the civic worthies over. They line up, backs anonymously to us at the start, but Chichester's ace cast soon revels in individuality, Steven Beard's hyper-nervous schoolman or Pip Donaghy's seething Magistrate among them.
Cause of their concern is a stranger in town, the foolish, lowly clerk Khlestyakov whom the civic leaders feverishly take for the Inspector who can ruin them. They shower him with bribes, while both the Mayor's Wife (Selina Cadell with fine high-headed snobbery) and daughter (Sophie-Louise Dann showing the character in unusually innocent light) are swept up in illusions of marrying this apparent Petersburg bigwig.
Alistair McGowan strides across the stage like a giant black exclamation mark, hovering over the terrified locals who fail to read his vacuously polite manner. He's given a clean sweep by Jon Morrell's suitably understated design, a series of panels flat across the stage, allowing several doorways for flexible entries and departures, emphasising the stage's width and therefore the large group moments.
Central to Duncan's production is Graham Turner's magnificent Mayor. Venal, spluttering, irate, he's a comic figure to be feared rather than of pure fun; the massed grey figures silently parading the stage are like a vision of prisoners, lost to society under his brutal regime. At the height of his supposed power, there's no doubting the cruelty of his revenge on the shopkeepers who've told on him.
The interpretation makes this a rich, absorbing production, climaxing in a finale tableau as a smart-uniformed guard announced by military trumpet, summons the locals to meet the real Inspector. The moral force makes clear why Priestley used a similar title, but Duncan's finishing flourish, an extended tableau choreographed with agonisingly slow movement by Toby Sedgewick, is pure Gogol.
Mayor: Graham Turner
Anna: Selina Cadell
Marya: Sophie-Louise Dann
Magistrate: Pip Donaghy
Commissioner for Health: Barry McCarthy
Director of Education: Steven Beard
Postmaster: Aleksandr Mikic
Bobchinsky: Daniel Abelson
Dobchinsky: Stephen Ventura
Dr Hubner: Trevor Jones
Police Superintendent/1st Shopkeeper: Kieran Hill
Police Constable: Grant Anthony
Khlestakov: Alistair McGowan
Osip: Toby Sedgewick
Mishka/3rd Shopkeeper/Korobkin: Phillip Sutton
Avdotya: Fiona Dunn
Waiter/4th Shopkeeper: David Langham
Locksmith's Wife: Darlene Johnson
Sergeant's Widow: Nina French
Abdulin/Lyulyukov: Tom Silburn
2nd Shopkeeper/Rastakovsky: Nolan Frederick
Korobkin's Wife: Leanne Rogers
Director of Education's Wife: Ruth Anderson
Magistrate's Wife: Alexis Owen-Hobbs
Director: Martin Duncan
Designer: Jon Morrell
Lighting: Chris Ellis
Sound/Composer: Adam Cork
Movement: Toby Sedgewick
Season Installation Designer: Alison Chitty
Assistant director: Thomas Hescott
2005-07-10 12:53:05