Nomad Theatre Blog

GOGOL’S The Government Inspector. March 13th 2009

Traditionally, Friday 13th is considered unlucky. For those of us seated in The Nomad Theatre on that evening the absolute reverse was true. We were exposed to the most brilliantly funny and skilfully executed performance of this rarely performed play.

The opening moments revealed a beautiful Palladian style room set. We had only a few moments in which to appreciate it, before it was filled with a growing crowd of players, all in full period dress, to-ing and fro-ing with huge energy and setting the scene for what we immediately knew would be a comedy.

This, of course, is no ordinary comedy, it is Russian. That means two things. It is long and generally very subtle! In this case not overly subtle since Ian Nicholls had worked every detail of the comic and ironic moments to such a degree that there was not a second when we were not treated to some visual or verbal, side-splitting hilarity. One could look at any character at any moment during the performance and find something of interest to make one smile. This is no mean feat with such a large cast. Director and players deserve warm congratulations.

Such successful performances are undoubtedly the result of very close and happy team work. However, if the play is Russian, it tends to have one or two giant roles on which the whole thing balances. Here again this play ran true to expectation. The Mayor played by John Norris and Khlestakov played by Steve Rowland displayed huge energy and enviable feats of memory in delivering their roles brilliantly while ably supported by the rest of the company. It would be invidious to try to comment individually on any of the other players since they all played with great commitment throughout, creating a plethora of beautifully observed characters . They brought to life every aspect of the town’s rather eccentric populations and its life. We enjoyed meeting them all.

Scene changes are usually “cough and shuffle” pauses. No time for such in this performance. The scene changes were efficient and imaginatively executed. They melted into and became part of the performance. As the set was fairly minimal, it was all rearranged in a flash as and when required. What furnishing there was, was pertinent, stylish and attractive to the eye.

The costume was delightful and worn with a real sense of period. The use of colour was really lovely, enhanced by the lighting, of course. The magenta splashes were particularly effective. The whole performance was enhanced by live and specially written music, something that one normally associates with West End shows.

The company played to an almost full house. It would have had long queues waiting for returns had people really appreciated the treat on offer. This is no ordinary village theatre, no ordinary company of players and no ordinary repertoire. Thank you ALL for a very special evening.

Notification of Greenroom EGM

Owing to changes in the licensing law and also in the way the theatre is now run, a revision of the old constitution of the Greenroom Club has become necessary. A draft constitution has been prepared by the committee. In order to ratify this, an Extraordinary General Meeting is being held on Tuesday, 31st March at 8pm in the bar.

Copies of the proposed new constitution are available in the foyer or, alternatively, it may be examined on the theatre website.

Please try and support this meeting. It would be helpful if you could contact me to let me know if you are coming; we need a quorum (20 people) to pass the amendments. The bar will, of course, be open after the meeting — so do stay for a drink and enjoy a sociable Members’ Evening!

You can view the constitution here, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it which most computer should have:

New Greenroom Constitutions

The Government Inspector

The end of a great show this week. The following are a couple of photos from the show

I managed to grab a couple of minutes with the director of The Government Inspector, Ian Nichols. Sorry about the quality of the video we only had a very short about of time available. As well as talking about the production Ian also talks about how he became a director and advise for anyone wanting to become a Director. Click the image below to start playing the video.

Click to Watch!

The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol

Public officials who are in denial about their own incompetence! Officials who are guilty of fraud, greed or hypocrisy. Sounds familiar these days!

The Nomads will be performing The Government Inspector at the Nomad Theatre, Bishopsmead Parade, East Horsley from Tuesday to Saturday 10 -14 March at 8pm.

Nikolai Gogol’s comedy was first performed in 1836 in Tsarist Russia, a society supposedly very different from our own. Yet as one character says, “He doesn’t pay his bill, he must be a government inspector!” Change inspector for any one of the people described in the news as those who cheat the system or don’t pay their way and you quickly see the play’s relevance.

The Government Inspector is set in a small town where corruption is a way of life and the Mayor and his cronies live well at the expense of shopkeepers and townspeople. Their world is turned upside down when they hear that an inspector is coming to report on them.

The characters are preposterous. The postmistress drinks heavily but also uses the mail as reading material for her leisure hours. The Director of Education is a pathetic, cringing personality, scared of his own teachers. The Magistrate is a womaniser but why does he keep geese in the courtroom? The Health Commissioner has sold the hospital beds and doesn’t believe in using medicine on patients, while the doctor only speaks German throughout. The Mayor is tyrannical, ambitious, smug and self-serving, yet he has to contend with a wife and daughter as bizarre as any of the other characters.

Into this mix comes a penniless traveller with a talent for fantasy and an eye to the main chance. Unwittingly at first but with increasing cunning he takes advantage of them all.

Alastair Beaton, one of the writers of Drop the Dead Donkey and Spitting Image, has adapted the play. He is an award winning writer who has brought his own satirical wit to the task of translating Gogol’s masterpiece.

Director Ian Nichols says, “This is a really wonderful show to work on and I am thoroughly enjoying directing comedy.”

Tickets are 11.00. Call the box office on 01483 284747 on Saturdays from 10.00 to 12.30 pm. Leave a message on the answerphone at other times or visit www.nomadtheatre.com.