THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR
Photo: Ellie Kurtz
What a fun and genuinely entertaining way to start the festival season at Chichester. Gogol’s masterful comedy in a sharp and stylish new adaptation by Phil Porter. Whilst taking our seats and enjoying yet another stunning CFT set, this time from Francis O’Connor, we are treated to delightful and jaunty Russian inspired folk music written by Paul Englishby. It could have been the real thing but as he gets a composer credit I assume not, no matter, it was very nice and gave one time to study that set in all its chaotic delight.
And chaos is at the heart of the piece, a small town, Ukrainian I assume as Gogol himself was Ukranian, and run by a band of corrupt and exploitative officials. They are thrown into abject panic when informed by letter that a government inspector is on his way. The panic then increases as rumour reaches them that he has already arrived and been billeted in the local pub.
The town Mayor is played by Lloyd Hutchinson with pompous bluster and arrogance, his fear at what might happen when said inspector discovers how the town is being run is tangible and he immediately sets about calling together his cohorts to see what can be done to avoid what is surely inevitable.
Joe Dixon is the corrupt judge, not averse to taking a bribe and somewhat obsessed with puppies. It’s a finely wrought comedy portrayal, booming, bombastic and weirdly physical, who knew that a man of such stature could bend their legs in such a manner!
Oscar Pearce is the shrewish self-serving charity commissioner and his wiry and unpleasant presence adds darkness and depth to the level of corruption that they are trying to conceal.
Christopher Middleton is the Head Of Schools, a tongue tied buffoon of a man, an obsessive academic with few communication skills and apparently a tendency to excessive behaviour in the classroom. Middleton is every inch the part, totally believable. As is Reuben Johnson who plays the Postmaster with a delicate innocence and charm, even though he is breaking every rule in the book.
They are a motley band of corrupt civic officials set in a time gone by but all too familiar to a contemporary audience.
Tom Rosenthal and Lloyd Hutchinson Photo: Ellie Kurtz
Into their world comes Khlestakov, an arrogant and self important young man, effete and entitled in a way that is all to familiar if you compare to some current so called celebrities. He is simply a clerk but by mistake and rumour the ensemble assume he is the Government Inspector. Tom Rosenthal delivers the role with style, his assumed importance and entitlement delivered with shrill energy, his gangly presence loping around the stage as he realises his unearned change in fortune. He is funny but also despicable and he balances the two elements of the role extremely well.
Photo: Ellie Kurtz
The rumour of course has to have been delivered to the officials in some form and this is done by a comic duo of brothers, Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, Miltos Yerolemou and Paul Rider. There is an element of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum to their collective performance in both physicality and costume and they are simply brilliant in every sense. Precision and clarity in the delivery of their complex scripting, their physical presence is a masterclass in movement and their pathetic grovelling to their assumed superiors is both hilarious and pitiful. This could have been the comedy highlight of the whole, wonderful stuff, but then we have Osip, Khlestakov’s hard done by servant. How much of this character was borrowed by Eric Idle when writing the part of Patsy in Spamelot?
Nick Haverson Photo: Ellie Kurtz
Nick Haverson infests the role with a level of comic genius that steals almost every scene. His grubby presence belying the fact that he is the only person in the tale who actually knows what is going on. This is a five star performance, the underdog that we all love, even though he colludes in his master’s deceit, we forgive him.
I leave to last the mayor’s wife and daughter. Laurie Ogden as the latter is rather good as the somewhat dimwitted and oppressed offspring and costumed in a way that emphasises the element of pantomime given to the whole piece.
Sylvester’s Le Touzel is excellent as the wife, a woman who deludedly believes that her powers of sexual attraction can still win the attentions of Khlestakov, and in truth he is is quite prepared to go there should his play for the daughter go wrong.
But at this point I have one caveat about the whole. Le Touzel plays the part with more than just a hint of Molly Sugden, she does it well whether intentionally or not, and it is very funny, although on her act two entrance the accent is for a moment lost. But this is not my quibble. My thought is that almost every character is played with a different regional accent, and not just a regional accent but for the most part a northern comedy accent. It is tinged with a sense that northerners are perhaps all idiots and in this play corrupt idiots. Add to this a rather long speech delivered in West Indian vernacular that teeters on the brink of patronising, great to have seen diverse and inclusive casting for this but…
The company is rounded out by an excellent ensemble of actors who take on a variety of roles from shopkeepers to spouses and police.
Despite my one misgiving this is a fine production, very funny, very entertaining and delivered assuredly by director Gregory Doran.
Andrew Kay
1 May
Chichester Festival Theatre
Rating:
