By Graham Hiley.
If you thought Fawlty Towers was ahead of its time, just imagine the reaction 139 years earlier when Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector hit the stage!
It would be wrong to say it follows the same premise as the 1975 classic episode the Hotel Inspectors because Gogol’s masterpiece was written in 1836.
And Phil Porter’s clever adaptation at Chichester Festival Theatre, shows it is still as fresh and funny and every bit as relevant today.
While the John Cleese variation on a theme focuses on the farce, Gogol’s play has a harder underlying satirical and even subversive message as it exposes corruption and ineptitude in government.
Here the autocratic mayor of a remote Russian provincial town receives a tip-off that a government inspector is staying at the local inn. So, he and his cronies set about trying to win a favourable report and stop their indiscretions and incompetencies coming to light.
The stranger is delighted with the cash and red carpet treatment as he is only a low-ranking pen-pusher with a headful of fantasies and an eye for an opportunity.
Friday Night Dinner star Tom Rosenthal is oily, obnoxious and obsequious all at once in his excellent portrayal of the “inspector” strongly supported by Nick Haverson as his servant Osip – or Manuel as he might have been called!
Their chemistry draws many of the laughs backed up strongly by Lloyd Hutchinson (Mickey 17) who perfectly captures the Mayor’s haughty sense of entitlement.
Alongside him, the superb Sylvestra Le Touzel produces a performance worthy of Patricia Routledge as his equally ambitious wife Anna while Miltos Yerolemou and Paul Rider have a great antagonistic rapport as Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky.
Ironically the most honest of the corrupt cartel is the judge (Joe Dixon) who openly admits to taking bribes!
While the characters are two-dimensional and the plot predictable, that only enhances the experience; you know what’s coming and it’s still funny.
Much of that is down to Porter’s clever updating of this classic with lines like “No Russian would do a thing like that” taking on a whole new meaning in these troubled times.
Scarily, little has changed since this brilliantly inventive satire was first staged in front of Tsar Nicholas I who reportedly loved it even though it poked fun at the culture of bureaucracy and bribery condoned by his regime.
Imagine Vladimir Putin sitting through this modernised version! It probably would not have got much further than the atmospheric Russian music which opened the performance.
There would likely even be conflict over the nationality of Gogol, born in Ukraine yet annexed by Russia who claimed him as one of their own – despite his thinly-veiled attack on their government.
Like all the best satires, the message is subtle. Gregory Doran’s production can be enjoyed as a harmless but hilarious farce or seen as an attack on dictators; it could just as easily be set in a remote American outpost now.
Instead, it has found a home in Chichester’s Festival Theatre where this version received its world premiere to kick off the 2025 Festival Season in terrific style. It runs there until May 24. cft.org.uk/events/the-government-inspector
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