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On some levels The Government Inspector will be the night at the theatre you are expecting – a rollicking farce reminiscent of Michael Frayn’s classic (currently revived) Noises Off. But it is a good deal more than that – a playful but clever take on another work that comes at you in layers.
The publicity for Simon Stone’s production, or more accurately rewrite, is a very loose take on the original Gogol farce and so it needs to be. A straight satire of Soviet bureaucracy would hardly compel 21st century Australian audiences.The original Government Inspector is a play about mistaken identity and the way we beg to be made fools of. The inhabitants of a corrupt Soviet town hear that an incognito inspector will be visiting and go to extraordinary lengths to please the new arrival; except that the new arrival is not the real inspector, merely a humble civil servant who ends up making fools of them all.
Stone gives us an entirely different setting, a contemporary ensemble of actors waiting for a star director from Russia. But the setting is only part of the way in which this production plays with the original. It is much more a theatrical riff on the themes of The Government Inspector than a modernised or even a reset production, so that the title turns out to be as much mistaken identity as everything else.
The pleasure of this production is much like that of a jazz performance: the play takes off in multiple directions that escape the discipline of form but reward us with the joy of performance itself, an occasionally discernible melody and some individual moments of virtuosity.
The result is enormous fun, if a little chaotic. The performers are so obviously enjoying themselves that only the most churlish of audiences could fail to do likewise. Theatre lovers and insiders will particularly enjoy the games that the performers play with the audience but you don’t have to come with inside knowledge to get it.
Stone starts with a straight satire but ends with a 21st century mash-up that is meta-everything and self-referential but far too funny to be navel-gazing.
The ensemble cast makes the production feel very informal but they are really highly polished with great fluidity and dynamics in what is actually a very challenging performance. Robert Menzies, who has the task of bringing the audience into the head space of an unexpected piece, does a great job and from there we cannot but enjoy ourselves.
The Government Inspector opens as, just down the road, the MTC closes another revival of an old play, Private Lives. It is instructive to observe the differences between the two. MTC has reproduced a dated play faithfully and competently and it still gets plenty of laughs. But Malthouse shows us what can be done if an old text is really interrogated and exploded and the result is much funnier. I haven’t laughed so much in a long time.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
The Government Inspector
A Malthouse/Belvoir co-production
By Simon Stone with Emily Barclay; devised with the cast
Featuring: a short musical by Stefan Gregory
Inspired by Nikolai Gogol
Set Design: Ralph Myers
Lighting Design: Paul Jackson
Sound Design & Composition: Stefan Gregory
Choreography: Lucy Guerin
Costume Design: Mel Page
Cast: Fayssal Bazzi, Mitchell Butel, Gareth Davies, Robert Menzies, Zahra Newman, Eryn-Jean Norvill and Greg Stone
Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne
www.malthousetheatre.com.au
28 February – 23 March
Belvoir, Surry Hills
www.belvoir.com.au
27 March – 18 May
