Talent on show in timeless satire

The Old Stagers The Government Inspector Gulbenkian Theatre, Cantebury: August 2-6.

For their 165th Canterbury season, the Old Stagers produced a talented and fastmoving version of Nikolai Gogol’s sharp and timeless 1836 satire The Government Inspector, in a modern translation by Alistair Beaton.

Gogol’s withering dissection of the pretensions, corruption and gullibility of a bunch of local officials – exploiting their power to organise life to suit themselves, but terrified of any disruption to their gravy train from higher authority – is masterly and very funny.

It is also utterly contemporary. It could be set in any current local health authority or branch of the EU or UN.

The caricatures of the bunch of crooks in local public life are in the best Swiftian tradition – their various foibles making them instantly recognisable and their downfall thoroughly satisfying.

Oliver Carson as Khlestakov, the amoral chancer who, after initially failing to understand his good luck in being mistaken for the feared inspector, exploits the situation mercilessly and makes off happily with the many bribes pressed upon him, gave a dominating performance, while the Mayor and his cronies flocked round him like scurrying mice.

Christopher Stonehill played the Mayor expertly as the sort of official one sees looking shifty in front of a Commons Select Committee.

Eileen Battye gave us his air-headed, pretentious and attention-seeking wife with verve and gusto. Agnes Payne as their daughter Marya was a truculently pouting, irritating teenager.

Philip Noel and Ricky Ritchie as Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, dimwitted local landowners – a sort of Laurel and Hardy double-act – brought another strand of broader humour to add to the fun.

Peter Cowell was a Commissioner for Health under whose jurisdiction it would be extremely inadvisable to be ill.

Direction by Ray Howes and Ricky Ritchie was deft and intelligent, making the most of Gogol’s cutting insights and coruscating wit and expertly marshalling the huge cast of 29.

On Friday and Saturday, the traditional epilogue after the play was a witty musical commentary on recent events, and gave many other Old Stagers a chance to show their skills.

Gay Buckley, Kate Robertson and Gubby Wales brought glamour and professionalism to Christopher Stonehill’s entertaining and acerbic script.

Jack Wales

A scene from the Old Stagers’ production of The Government Inspector at the Gulbenkian Theatre