THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Gogol's The Government Inspector, although written 186 years ago, translates to our contemporary world with chilling ease. Blinded by their own anxiety at getting caught lying, cheating and stealing, an entire town comes to believe they are on the receiving end of a terrifying reckoning: a government inspector is coming to ensure their (non-existent) virtue. What's to be done? Lie, cheat and steal their way out of it, of course. Rife with self-delusion, guided by fear and motivated by a profound sense of lack, the people of this small Russian town stand in thrall to a vacuous impostor whose capacity for fantastical grandeur makes it impossible for him to question why everyone keeps giving him money and treating him so well. The Government Inspector sets the stage for the cringe-worthy comedy we have adopted as our own, and the Randolph production takes advantage of the talent of the performers to create a fast-paced physically virtuosic adaptation of the play.