THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR. To 16 October.

Pitlochry

THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR
by Nikolai Gogol New version by John Byrne

Pitlochry Festival Theatre In rep to 16 October 2004
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Wed & Sat 2pm
Runs 2hr 45 min One interval

TICKETS: 01796 484626
www.pitlochry.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 18 August

A must-see show of the Pitlochry season.Though seen a few years ago at London's Almeida Theatre, this is the first professional Scottish outing for John Byrne's Scots/Russian palimpsest of Gogol's best-known comedy. Russian names, but Scottish voices and kilts aplenty, it captures, in Tony Cownie's fine production, the force of Gogol's fierce satire.

For there's no-one sympathetic in this world, which is that of a vitriolic, comic Dostoyevsky, or a Russian Dickens. Geoff Rose's gloomy room, comfortlessly oversized in its fittings yet cramped when crowded, dark and dirty-seeming, admirably sets the scene.

I begin to fear for Jonathan Battersby. Spending two-hours at his nerves' ends as the impresario in Lend Me A Tenor he also has a sustained heart-attack-pending temper as the Provost whose corrupt small-town administration is subject to an unexpected inspection by the powers-that-be.

Battersby's magnificent, oily towards the supposed inspector, furious towards his fellow-villains and cruel towards those over whom he has power. For once, thankfully, Tony Cownie directs in a way that doesn't pull back on the darker side (here approaching viciousness) of his script.

Battersby's final fury turns in on himself, a master-cheat furious he's let himself be taken in, before punching out at the audience. Iin Gogol's penultimate jest, we who laugh at this Provost are as bad as he. Rats all, to use Gogol's early image. It's a climax superbly reached, and Battersby is its central plank.

He's surrounded by a splendid company. The advantages of an ensemble, acting together over months and so able to play off each other's individualities, are pulling full force at this stage of the season in Pitlochry. Martyn James' slimily evasive court-supremo, Dougal Lee's brutally narrow-minded yet hollow hospital-keeper, Rory Murray's diffidently incompetent headteacher - all are clearly delineated, precision and variety making the most of Byrne's witty dialogue.

Then there are the Bob/Dob twins, maybe not so pathetic in Byrne's version, but a keen comic double-act, each self-assertive until it's time to take the blame, echoing thereby the bigger powers around them.And Harry Ward contributes an hilariously ignorant post-office manager, nose and chin jutting with stupendous stupidity from under his cap of office.

Both in their workaday attire, then gaudily got-up in what they think of as fashion, Amanda Bellamy and Victoria Balnaves simper and battle so as not to let women off Gogol's hook. Just as the victims of corruption, the tradesmen, are willing to fork out a bribe when it's in their interest - there's none good; not one.

All they get is dull lack of appreciation from servant Osip (Richard Addison with a comic Russian fatalism that sees heaven in a full stomach) or master Khlestakov, the lowly, destitute clerk suddenly heaped with wealth when he's mistaken for a government snooper.

Steven McNicoll slightly overdoes the posh English accent of the outsider (no-one so lowly could put it on so thoroughly) but in voice and exaggerated facial expressions - whether by himself or conning the local fools - he finds an apt Dickensian grotesquery. It was even possible to forgive his wicked way with a candle that almost brought (one trusts for one performance only) a scene to a smoky halt. Overall, it's a superb performance to match Battersby's in an all-round excellent show.

Lord Provost: Jonathan Battersby
Magistrate: Martyn James
Parish Boots: Dougal Lee
School Board/Ironmonger: Rory Murray
Doctor/Abdulin/Waiter: Jonathan Dryden Taylor
Mishka/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/Taylor: Richard Addison
Khlestakov: Steven McNicoll

Director: Tony Cownie
Designer/Costume: Geoff Rose
Lighting: Mark Pritchard
Voice coach: Alex Gillon

2004-08-19 12:49:45