The Government Inspector

by Nikolai Gogol

seen at the Chichester Festival Theatre on 17 May 2025

Gregory Doran directs a new version of Gogol's famous play by Phil Porter, with a large ensemble cast (how profligate with actors older playwrights were! - twenty-four named characters and unnamed sundries.)

A marvellous set, designed by Francis O'Connor, gives the impression of a nineteenth-centruy provincial Russian (or Ukrainian) town, with cupolas and steep roofs silhouetted like a child's overgrown box of wooden building blocks, while also representing the cluttered office of the beleaguered mayor. The local worthies are in a sudden panic having heard that a government inspector is about to arrive, probably incognito: their venality might well be exposed. Their mounting unease is brilliantly counterpointed by the extraordinary comings and goings of a local police officer who skids across the floor in paroxysms of enthusiasm.

A wastrel passing through the town is mistaken for the inspector; from being threatened with starvation for not having paid his bills at the inn, Khlestakov is suddenly showered with favour and money, and he is soon in a position to flirt with both the wife and the daughter of the mayor, and he is more than willing to accept, and then to demand, favours from all and sundry.

This farcical indictment of petty corruption and unbridled opportunism is great fun to watch, though its mechanics are occasionally a bit creaky. The local jealousies and snobberies are nicely observed; the classic master/servant relationship is wonderfully elaborated between Khlestakov and the hapless but worldly-wise Osip; the imperious wife and put-upon daughter of the mayor provide a study of domestic tension; and there is a good deal of physical comedy making excellent use of Chichester's thrust stage, including a spectacular pratfall through a skylight into Khlestakov's garret room in the hostelry.

Khlestakiv makes his getaway apparently unscathed, and far richer than he was when he arrived, while the town worthies are about to be confronted by the real inspector ....