The Inspector Inspected

It starts as all great farces do- with a misconception. The Mayor of a small Russian town barely on the map learns that a government inspector will come to town. The people rally together and deduce who they think the inspector is. Their supposition turns out just to be the rakish son of an aristocrat who’s bureaucratic position is hardly worth a thing. It is this folly, and the greed of one party versus the sycophantic manipulation of the other, that leads to a startling conclusion.

Or so you would hope from a production of _The Government Inspector_, which takes elements of French farce and Brechtian didacticism and collides them under the expert hand of Gogol. But even at this first stage, the writer is a flawed creature. There are moments in the play, during long speeches and class wars waged by the servant characters, that feel as if Gogol has sat up whilst writing the play and decided he wants to be Dostoyevsky for the day. It is a jarring change of focus as the intricacies and dramatic ironies of the farce end up competing with social commentaries with all the delicacy and subtlety of nuclear warfare. The translator and playwright David Harrower does, admittedly, make a noble attempt at addressing this balance, but it just does not quite work. But can we blame him? Who is to blame that this production feels so elementally lacklustre when the bows are taken?

Was it, perhaps, the fault of the director? Maybe. At times the stage was too busy, too confusing (as if the play itself was not bad enough) especially during an intriguing choice of transition performed by a group of pillow-case wearing vigilantes who defecate on the furniture. It was also noticeable how in the after-show talk both the director and Julian Barratt seemed capable of explaining vision or characterisation. These are the faults of a director who does not explore characters. His attempts at wacky and unusual theatrical decisions- the repeated projection of the word incognito to a soundtrack of what can only be described as gameboys performing the soundtracks to Hammer horror films for example- utterly failed him. The second half turned into a series of unrelated and pointless conclusions to plotlines we never cared about in the first place.

So maybe it was the actors fault? Julian Barratt was certainly lazy in his performance of the Mayor; it was a performance lacking in urgency and frenzy that one can hear in his lines but not in his manner. There was no menace when he was adjudicator, no love when he was with his family, no rage in his final speech. Just a constant fear of being found out by the audience, accompanied by shifty glances and a jaw locked by cowardice of how people would receive him. It was a cast, altogether that lacked heart and togetherness upon the stage. One did not care they had all been deceived. One also could not tell if we were to view these characters as allegories or as real people, and if it was an attempt to be both is was not well done. Compliments however must be given to the performances of Doon Mackichan as Anna, who although a bit shaky at the start filled her character with brassy charm and laughably artificial airs. It was the performance that gave life to the stage, as did Kyle Soller as the fraudulent aristocrat. At times overly camp, and at times losing his accent, he did a miraculous job of injecting life into a play that felt ready to have the life support switched off. Amanda Lawrence as the Postmaster was also a genius choice of casting, creating the perfect pompous male frame and capturing the audience with her every word.

One last finger we must point must fall at Nicky Gillibrand, the costume designer. Whilst lavish, the costumes felt more pantomime than professional; Doon Mackichan appeared in a series of hilarious dresses but ones designed for Dame Edna Everage, not the Mayor’s wife. The rest of the costumes did not look like the outfits of the provincial but instead just a bit slapdash in creation with some lazy design details here or there.

There are gleaming performances and indeed hilarious moments in _The Government Inspector_; some of the conversation between Anna and Maria (played to a winsome but slightly demented tee by Louise Brealey) was flat out hilarious and incredibly insightful which showed that everybody was capable of working together to create great moments on stage. But all in all it was a performance that nobody felt satisfied with. It was a vision of the piece that just did not quite work, and makes one wonder if we should stop attempting to adapt a play done so many times, and maybe move on to something new instead.

_The Government Inspector_ continues its run at the Arts Centre until the 28th May.