It is amazing how a Russian play that’s been knocking around since 1836 can still raise a flag and bang a gong about contemporary themes in the west. Nikolai Gogol’s ‘Government Inspector’ combines farce and satire with a dash of slapstick and a thick coating of human frailty.
Anyone that’s sat through an Ofsted inspection, an organisational restructuring or an employment tribunal will celebrate Gogol’s prescient insight. An inspector is coming? OK, tidy up the farm, clean up the hospital, paint the wall, update the accounts. Make sure everyone is on board!
This performance at the Barn Theatre in Southwick began with a welcoming speech from a fluent Russian speaker in the cast. Spasibo! Dobry den! Then we glided into a mixture of farce, social commentary, bureaucratic wrangles and impersonations. But, what if the rumoured inspector had already arrived in the village? A traveller has just booked in at a nearby hostel. Let’s check him out.
Someone remembers the government in St Petersburg once gave them money to build a church. OK, if the inspector asks about the (missing) new church, why not say it unfortunately burnt down in an attack by an arsonist and that wall over there is all that remains? Good thinking!
The Mayor (Graham Muncer) assigns Dr Gibner (H Reeves) to get all the patients’ details written down on cards with their date of birth, type of illness alongside flattering (invented) comments about the treatment they received. Oh and just remember, the mayor does not take bribes, OK?
Meanwhile, two local landlords, Dobchinsky (Tim Ingram) and Bobchinsky (Ron Common), were down at the pub and reckon the young man who just checked in was the inspector. The Postmaster (Roy Stevens) can be relied on to open all the letters that come his way. Meanwhile, the mayor’s wife, Anna (Emma Sayers) and daughter Maria, (Zarrina Danaeva) start dusting themselves down for a meeting with the handsome inspector. Maybe he will have a cute moustache?
Mind you, this inspector always seems a bit short on cash. But it’s all OK, everyone in the village is keen to pay for his meals, offer him good money, get him a better room. He even starts flirting with the mayor’s wife and daughter. This isn’t going to end well.
Gogol, who was a bit of a lost soul himself, ended up driven to near madness. He burnt vast amounts of his writing just before he died but his work strongly influenced both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. This production of the ‘Government Inspector’ also reveals the roots and intricacies of many nefarious scandals that remain relevant today.
The performance involved a cast of 15 alongside the director (Richard Linfield), set designer (Len Shipton) and lighting operators (Martin Oakley and Torrin Geiger). There was a seven-strong wardrobe team (including Milla Hills, Margaret Skeet and Ann Atkins) while Jo Hall, Ron Common and Chris Horlock devised convincing props, wigs and makeup.
The Southwick Players, founded in 1935, remains one of the UK’s longest-standing amateur theatre companies. Their production of the ‘Government Inspector’ lights up the opportunism, scandal and frailty inherent in modern bureaucracy. Accurate, hilarious and painfully close to home.
Photos by jmdcreative
