A brand-new production of Nikolai Gogol’s satirical masterpiece, The Government Inspector, will premiere at the Marylebone Theatre from 3 May – 15 June 2024, with a press night on Wednesday 8 May.
The Government Inspector is Nikolai Gogol’s masterful comedy about how corrupt power destroys itself, exposing the tragi-comic consequences of collective delusion and the swindlers who would exploit it.
“There’s no money in honesty!”
A comedy about hypocrites, hysterics and hustlers.
An over-privileged, vainglorious liar is mistaken for a high-ranking government
inspector by the corrupt local officials of a parochial town. Desperate to cover up their
crimes and escape censure, the town’s Governor and his cronies pull out all the stops
to try and bribe this dishonest buffoon with money, wine and women.
Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector premiered in 1836, in the presence of Tsar Nicholas I, whose enjoyment of the play undoubtedly saved it from the appalled censors, furious at this brazen satire of the country’s corrupt bureaucracy at all levels of government. The Tsar is said to have remarked, “We’ve all taken a bop on the nose from this writer. Me most of all!”
Apparently inspired by a real encounter when the writer Alexander Pushkin was mistaken for a government official in a provincial town and then told his friend Gogol all about it, the play is a landmark in theatrical history for its lack of ethical characters, fearless attack on the ruling classes and groundbreaking cocktail of farce and realism.
The Government Inspector’s themes of hypocrisy, corruption and mass delusion have cemented its reputation as one of the greatest comedies in world literature and ensured that wherever a corrupt and hypocritical government is in power, this play finds its way to a stage.
The Government Inspector is adapted and directed by Patrick Myles, with set and costume design by Melanie Jane Brookes, sound design by Jamie Lu, production management by Alex Firth and casting consultancy by Matilda James.
Producer Alexander “Sandy” Marshall said, “The Government Inspector is a remarkably relevant and hilariously funny account of power, corruption and human folly that is so timely you’ll be laughing through your tears.”
Full casting and creative team will be announced shortly.
