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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 January 2009
Although numbered among the earliest of masterpieces from the modern repertoire, Gogol's The Government Inspector has its roots deep in earlier Russian society, and much of its apparent humour is based on close observation of the gradations and prejudices of provincial Russian society in the early nineteenth century. In a detailed exploration of the revival in the National Theatre's Olivier auditorium, Mark Hawkins-Dady relates the play to its origins, suggesting that the director Richard Eyre stuck closely to the metaphorical truth, at least, of the social ambience selected by Gogol – and that the apparently eccentric casting of ‘alternative comedian’ Rik Mayall in the central role closely reflected Gogol's own feelings about the nature and playing of the character. Mark Hawkins-Dady is a graduate student in the Drama Department of Royal Holloway College. University of London, currently preparing a doctoral dissertation on directing practices at the National Theatre.
1. O'Shaughnessy, Kathy, The Spectator, 9 02 1985, p. 30Google Scholar.
2. Coveney, Michael, Financial Times, 1 02 1985, p. 19Google Scholar.
3. Say, Rosemary, Sunday Telegraph, 3 02 1985, p. 16Google Scholar.
4. Barber, John, Daily Telegraph, 1 02 1985, p. 17Google Scholar.
5. Coveney, p. 19.
6. Shulman, Milton, Evening Standard, 1 02 1985, p. 30Google Scholar.
7. Barber, p. 17.
8. Shulman, p. 30.
9. Hirschhom, Clive, Sunday Express, 3 02 1985, p. 23Google Scholar.
10. Eyre, Richard interviewed by Roberts, Peter, ‘In Search of the Real Gogol’, Plays, II, No. 2, p. 14–15Google Scholar.
11. Ibid., p. 14.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid., p. 14–15.
14. , Gogol, ‘Letter to V. A. Zhukovsky’, in The Theater of Nikolay Gogol, translated by Ehre, Milton, Gottschalk, Fruma (Chicago University Press, 1980), p. 191Google Scholar.
15. Eyre, Plays, p. 15–16.
16. Gogol, ‘Leaving the Theater after a Performance of a New Comedy’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 182.
17. For much of the historical material mentioned, I am indebted to Lincoln, W. Bruce, In the Vanguard of Reform (Northern Illinois University Press, 1982)Google Scholar, which is recommended for a much fuller exposition of the nature of government in Gogol's day.
18. For a full listing of grades in the Table, see Peace, Richard, The Enigma of Gogol (Cambridge University Press, 1981), p. 300Google Scholar.
19. Peace, p. 170.
20. Lincoln, p. 12.
21. Ibid., p. 9–10.
22. Ibid., p. 22.
23. Ibid., p. 6.
24. Eyre, Richard, interviewed by Hay, Malcolm, ‘Gogol on the South Bank’, in Plays and Players, 02 1985, p. 10Google Scholar.
25. Eyre, Plays, p. 16.
26. See Nabokov, Vladimir, Nikolai Gogol (New Directions, 1944), p. 42–52Google Scholar. Nabokov notes the manner in which Gogol provides a cast of secondary characters who are mentioned but never appear.
27. Peace, p. 160
28. Eyre, Plays and Players, p. 10.
29. Braun, Edward, Meyerhold on Theatre (Methuen, 1969), p. 215Google Scholar.
30. , Gogol, The Government Inspector, adapted by Mitchell, Adrian (Methuen London, 1985), p. 18Google Scholar.
31. Ibid.
32. Gordon, Giles, Punch, 13 02 1985, p. 58Google Scholar. Clive Hirschhom concurred: ‘It would all have worked so much better confined to the smaller, more intimate Cottesloe.’.
33. Eyre, Plays, p. 16.
34. Gogol also notes that Khlestakov ‘as the incarnation of lying and deception, flies off in his troika, God knows where’, in ‘Advice to Those Who Would Play The Government Inspector as It Ought To Be Played’, Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 173–4. Mitchell and Eyre may well also have been influenced by Dmitry Merezhkovsky's ‘mystical’ interpretation, in which Khlestakov's departure is compared to Chichikov's troika ride, as well as to Poprischkin's fantasy ride in Diary of a Madman; and he suggests that perhaps Khlestakov ‘would have gone ahead and dubbed himself a superman, or man-god’ in ‘Gogol and the Devil’, Gogol from the Twentieth Century, edited and translated by Maguire, Robert A. (Princeton University Press, 1974), p. 57–102, 70Google Scholar.
35. Eyre, Plays, p. 15.
36. Lincoln, p. 8.
37. Ibid., p. 33.
38. Gogol, quoted by Ehre, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. xxi.
39. Gogol, ‘Advice…’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 170–2.
40. Gogol, ‘Leaving the Theater…’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 185.
41. Nabokov, p. 42.
42. Lincoln, p. 13.
43. For a fuller description of civil service life, see Lincoln, p. 13–25.
44. Ehre, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. xxi.
45. Eyre, Plays, p. 14.
46. Valery Bryusov, ‘Burnt to Ashes’, in Gogol from the Twentieth Century, p. 105–31, 106.
47. Gogol, ‘Advice…’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 170–1.
48. , Gogol, The Inspector, translated by Cooper, Joshua, in Four Russian Comedies (Penguin, 1972), p. 219Google Scholar.
49. For example, in Marriage, each suitor enters Agafya's house hoping for a private audience with her, only to find himself in the same room and in the stifling company of the others.
50. Gogol, ‘Advice…’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 169.
51. Ibid.
52. Eyre, Plays and Players, p. 10.
53. Eyre, Plays, p. 14.
54. , Gogol, ‘Letter to M. S. Shchepkin’, 10 05 1836, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 175Google Scholar.
55. Gogol, ‘Advice…’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 174.
56. Gogol/Mitchell, p. 3. Eyre wanted to stress Dmuchanovsky's role as police governor rather than mayor (as his position is usually translated) with its much cosier connotations.
57. Gogol/Mitchell, p. 3.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid.
61. Gogol, ‘Advice…’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 172.
62. Ibid.
63. Gogol, ‘Fragment of a Letter to a Man of Letters, Written by the Author Shortly after the First Performance of The Government Inspector’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 179.
64. Gogol/Mitchell, p. 3.
65. Eyre, Plays, p. 15.
66. Rosemary Say thought that ‘Not even the crassest official could believe in…this unlikely Government spy’, while Michael Billington felt that ‘by pushing the idea of lunacy so far, however, this interpretation undercuts the other characters. When the Governor's wife says, ”He's got that St. Petersburg air — he looked so suave and sophisticated” you feel she is the one who wants locking up’, in The Guardian, 2 Feb. 1985, p. 12.
67. Steve Grant, Time Out, 7 Feb. 1985, p. 81.
68. Eyre, Plays, p. 16.
69. Gogol, ‘Advice…’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 172.
70. Ibid., p. 173.
71. Gogol, ‘Fragment of a Letter’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 178.
72. Gogol, ‘Advice…’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 174.
73. Worral, Nick, Nikolai Gogol and Ivan Turgenev (Macmillan, 1982), p. 112Google Scholar.
74. Gogol, ‘Letter to M. S. Shchepkin’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 175.
75. Gogol, ‘Fragment of a Letter’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 180.
76. Gogol, ‘Advice…’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 174.
77. Eyre, Plays, p. 14. He added (p. 16) that ‘the experience of that vision is similar to the experience of looking at a picture by Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon will say that no matter how distorted his representations may be, that is how he sees life’.
78. Gogol, ‘Advice…’, in Ehre and Gottschalk, p. 175.
79. Markov, Pavel, quoted by Braun, Edward, in The Theatre of Meyerhold, (Methuen, 1979), p. 211Google Scholar.
80. The fullest account available in English is Worral's, Nick excellent article ‘Meyerhold Directs Gogol's Government Inspector’, Theatre Quarterly II. No. 71 (07–10 1972), p. 75–95Google Scholar.
81. Braun, Meyerhold on Theatre, p. 209.
82. Braun, The Theatre of Meyerhold, p. 211.
83. Braun, Meyerhold on Theatre, p. 220.
84. Ibid., p. 213.
85. Eyre, Plays, p. 16.
86. Braun, Meyerhold on Theatre, p. 219.
87. Eyre, Plays, p. 14.
88. Ehre, Ehre and Gottschalk, p. xxii.