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| Edinburgh : A&E : Theatre: Reviews |
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Theatre listings > The Goverment Inspector.
It's set in a remote Russian town, where tartan is sometimes worn and golf is the local game, it's that far from St Petersberg, the capital. The town's worthies are revealed as not so worthy when they get word that a Government Inspector is coming their way. Each one of them has adapted his job to suit himself (there are no women in formal positions of power in this backwater) and inspection is the last thing they want. Steven McNicoll as the suspected Government Inspector comes supercharged fully centre stage in the second act in this his first lead part at Pitlochry. Rightly a contrast to the country bumpkins, Khlestakov is played so we believe he might indeed be a really powerful civil servant, masquerading as one of those somewhat charming southern accented young men whose work is inept. It's very pleasurable to watch the locals fawn as McNicoll's character grows as everything starts comng his way, better lodgings, possible romantic liasons and roubles. Trying to keep the town's nature under wraps Jonathan Battersby does sterling work as he gives us the Provost's plausibly honourable nature, Martyn James rolls out another of his establishment figures as the Judge, Dougal Lee's Parish Boots gives us a man whose charm covers his considerable acts of omission to his charges. Harry Ward has us just sensing something slimy in the Postmaster's love of steaming envelopes while his Dressmaker is a sartorial gay delight. Samuel James and Conrad Hornby, are the Gogol equivalent of Tweedledum and Tweedledee while Guy Fearon is several varieties of the long arm of the law when he's not smelling as fishy as a monger. Jonathan Dryden Taylor, Richard Addison and Matthew Lloyd Davies do well with small parts - Davies's Misha is excellent as he leans against the wall watching the antics of his master and town colleagues. Despite the couple behind me's reaction "Oh no it's him again" Rory Murray's stammering and twitching revolutionary school teacher received much applause on opening night. Amanda Bellamy is the garish Mrs Lord Provost and Victoria Balnaves is the somewhat grotesque daughter Marya are the only females in the town we see. With five down and one to go this rep programme hasn't stretched its very talented actors enough this year - a number are cast well within their safety zones. Is Pitlochry forgetting that one of the delights of rep is seeing actors in very different roles one production after another? The set and costumes are mainly in brown or dark tones. The action nearly all takes place in the Lord Provost's house in a dingy anti-chamber. Its several doors and high set windows lead one to conclude the town he has governance of has never had coherent town planning when the house's main entrance opens into a narrow back alley. Although there's a good deal of very funny business the scenes when most of the cast are on stage often have the actors arranged unimaginatively and the front stage area is too little used. Gogol's satire on local provincial government needs little updating, the types it portrays, like we poor people who sufffer them, are still around. Originally done for London audiences seven years ago John Byrne's version, having its Scottish premiere at Pitlochry, could do with more local sharpening. There's tartan, golf and a very comic highland fling, but a closer inferred stabbing of the inflated haggises of our own kailyard wouldn't have gone amiss. It is the frauds and excesses which most echoed our politicians' and officials' ones that get the largest laughs - a couple of years ago Liz Lochhead's Miseryguts, a version of Moliere's Le Misanthrope, set in today's Edinburgh flung far more sharp pepper into audiences' eyes at that city's Lyceum with the same director and designer as here. © Thelma Good 25 June 2004 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Cast: Lord Provost - Jonathan Battersby, Magistrate - Martyn James, Parish Boots - Dougal Lee, School Board/Ironmonger - Rory Murray, Doctor/Abdulin/ Waiter - Jonathan Dryden Taylor, Misha/Shopkeeper – Matthew Lloyd Davies, Postmaster/Dress Shop - Harry Ward, Bobchinsky – Samuel James, Dobchinsky - Conrad Hornby, Chief Constable/Large Policeman/Fishmonger - Guy Fearon, Anna - Amanda Bellamy, Marya - Victoria Balnaves, Osip/Tailor - Richard Addison and Khiestakov - Steven McNicoll. The Government Inspector's Dates & times of Performances. Preview 24 June at 2pm. Opens 24 June 2004 at 8pm then *29 June at 8pm, *30 June at 2pm. 5 July at 8pm, 9 July at 8pm, 15 July at 8pm, 22 July, *31 July at 8pm. 6 August at 8pm, *14 Aug at 8pm, 17 Aug at 8pm, *18 Aug at 2pm, *28 Aug at 8pm. 2 Sept at 8pm, 6 Sept at 8pm, *11 Sept at 2pm, *15 Sept at 8pm, 24 Sept at 8pm, 30 Sept at 8pm. *9 Oct at 2pm and last performance *16 Oct at 8pm. Theatre listings >
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