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Contents
page
2
Introduction for teachers
3
The Government Inspector
Nikolai Gogol his Life and Work
4
5
The Historical Context of the Play
7
Past Productions
8
Synopsis
11
Themes and Issues
13
Characters
14
How Theatre works:
The Director Designer Composer Stage Manager
How to become an actor
18
Review writing
26
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20
21
23
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Introduction
This education resource has been compiled to accompany Aberystwyth
Arts Centre and Communicado’s touring production of the play The
Government Inspector, by Nikolai Gogol, adapted by Adrian Mitchell.
The pack is designed to facilitate further learning and discussion following a visit to the performance and also suggests curriculum links to the
content of the play. The pack has a twin focus: firstly – a summary of
key information, themes and issues arising directly from the play. Secondly, resources connected to the interpretation, process and preparation
for the production, including the rehearsal process and the design of the
production.
You can download additional copies of this pack from:
http://www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk/resources
Please contact me should you have any questions or comments about the
resource pack or about the support available to schools from Aberystwyth Arts Centre’s Performing Arts Department.
I would like to thank the cast and creative team for their generous contributions to the resource pack and Creative Scotland and the Arts Council
of Wales for their support.
Gill Ogden
Head of Performing Arts
Aberystwyth Arts Centre [email protected] 01970 621512
Spring 2013
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Cast List
The Governor
Marya
Bobchinsky
Dobchinsky
The Postmaster
The Charity Commissioner
Anna
Judge
Avdotya/Musician
Khlestakov
Stephen Marzella
Kate Quinnell
Barrie Hunter
Ieuan Rhys
Jâms Thomas
George Drennan
Pauline Knowles
Malcolm Shields
Wendy Weatherby
Oliver Lavery
Production Team
Director
Written by
Adapted by
Designer
Lighting Designer
Musical Director
Movement Director
Producer
Production Manager
Head of Performing Arts
Deputy Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Manager
Technical Stage Manager
Set Technician
Wardrobe Supervisor
Wardrobe Assistant
Scenic Artist
Transport
Driver
Communicado Assistant Producer
Aberystwyth Arts Centre Administration
Press and Marketing
Photography
Copyright agent for the
Estate of Adrian Mitchell
Special Thanks to
Gerry Mulgrew
Nikolai Gogol
Adrian Mitchell
Jessica Brettle
Sergey Jakovsky
George Drennan
Malcolm Shields
Alan Hewson
Nick Bache
Gill Ogden
Fran Craig
Neil Anderson
Danny Owen
Pete Lochery
Jessica Brettle
Christine Dove
Kirsty Glover
Fly By Nite
Andy Evans
Emma Campbell
Maris Davies
Trish McGuinness
Louise Amery
Rachel Scurlock
Alexey Bogdanov
Douglas Robertson
Keith Morris
United Agents
[email protected]
Royal Lyceum Theatre, Citizen Theatre, Tron
Theatre, Perth Theatre, Pitlochry Theatre
This adaptation of THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR was directed by Richard Eyre,
firstly at the Nottingham Playhouse and then in his first season at the National Theatre,
London in January 1985, with Rik Mayall in the lead.
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Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
The writer – his life and work
1809 Born March 20th at Sorochintsy in the Ukraine. Gogol’s family
were minor gentry.
He had three sisters and one brother.
His father wrote comic plays for private performances for the gentry.
His mother was said to be superstitious and neurotic.
As a child he was surrounded by folk tales and superstition.
1828 Left school and went to live in St Petersburg where he worked as
a civil servant. He also auditioned unsuccessfully for the Imperial
Theatre.
1829 Published a narrative poem, Hans Kuchelgarten under a pseudonym which was badly received. Gogol bought up all the unsold copies,
burned them and went to Germany for 2 months.
1831 Became a history teacher in a young women’s college in St Petersburg.
First met the writer and dramatist Pushkin, a major literary influence on
Gogol, mentioned in The Government Inspector.
1831-2 Published Evenings On Farm near Dikanka, a collection of
Ukrainian village tales, an immediate critical hit.
1834 Appointed Professor of History at the University of St Petersburg,
specialising in the Middle Ages in Europe. It seems he was not a good
teacher but passionate about his subject.
During the 1830s Gogol visited Paris and saw many plays and operas.
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1835 Published short story collections Mirgorod and Arabesques, which
included The Portrait, Nevsky Prospect, Diary of a Madman
Wrote the first draft of Revizor, later known as The Government Inspector.
The play was based on an idea given to him by Pushkin, when Gogol asked him
for a good subject for a satyrical comedy.
Gave up teaching, and began work on Dead Souls.
1836 April 19th – first performance of Revizor at Alexandrinksy Theatre, St
Petersburg and on May 25th at Maly Theatre, Moscow.
Left Russia to live in Rome for 11 years
The Nose published.
Gogol Began an 8 year process of rewriting The Government Inspector.
1842 Dead Souls published.
1843 Collected Works published, including The Overcoat. The plays Marriage
and The Gamblers are performed in Moscow.
1845 Burned the second volume of Dead Souls – destroying 5 years work.
1846 Published Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends – a
reactionary defence of Tsarist autocracy and serfdom, receiving an hostile response.
1848 Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in search of spiritual enlightenment.
Returned to Russia.
Gogol became chronically ill, through self-mortification and malnutrition attributed to religious mania.
1852 February 11th – burned the rewritten second volume of Dead Souls.
February 21st – died in Moscow, aged 42.
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The Historical Context of the Play
Society:
Gogol lived at a time of great intellectual change in Russia where the traditional
Russian values of the Middle Ages were in decline and new ‘European’ ideas of
capitalism, community and self-identity were beginning to emerge.
Although it was some time before the social inequalities of the old system were
to be broken down, this more open thinking did lead to a rapid influx of literature,
philosophy, music and ideas from Western Europe.
Some of the greatest Russian writers emerged during this time including Turgenev,
Pushkin and of course Gogol.
Gogol greatly admired the literature of Greece and of the Western European
Middle Ages, as well as the German philosophers.
He was an idealist, believing that Russia had a divine mission.
However, politically, there is a contradiction in his work, whilst he states that he
supports the existing feudal system, with landlords ruling over peasants, Gogol’s
greatest works, such as The Government Inspector, show an impossible and crumbling social structure, leading to a sense of an absurd world inhabited by grotesque
characters and pointing inevitably to the need for social change.
Theatre:
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There was no professional theatre in Russia before the 1750s (in England
it began around 1570).
Before then theatre was limited to seasonal and religious rituals.
In 1702 Peter the Great set up a theatre in Moscow which staged plays by
visiting companies from France and Italy.
The first Russian theatre company was set up in1756 with the support of
the royal family.
They performed comedies, tragedies and history plays in the French style
and also adaptations of Shakespeare.
In the 18th century aristocrats set up’ peasant theatres’ on their estates,
creating performances by their own workers.
In 1779 the first acting school was established.
1765 – 1840 – the first play by Russian dramatists began to be performed.
The subjects of these plays included comedies social abuse and injustice,
usually caused by the excessive behaviour of individuals rather than the
system itself.
The form known as Vaudeville was the most popular type of theatre
around the 1850s. Vaudeville is similar to today’s Romantic Comedies
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the plots are usually about young lovers who have to deal with obstacles to
their happiness and the plays are interspersed with comedy and songs.
Whilst serious political plays were censored by the government, Vaudeville was encouraged as it was seen as non-threatening.
Gogol performed in a Vaudevillian play whilst at school. Though critical
of Vaudeville once he became a professional writer, the parody and comic
elements in his work show its influence. Elements in The Government
Inspector include use of word games, puns and play on the meanings of
people’s names.
Another popular form was the traditional puppet play. These folk pays
often included stock characters with comic names and contemporary references, such as the ‘boastful Pole’ and the ‘daring Cossack’. Gogol’s father
wrote such plays.
Absolute government control over the theatre did not end until 1892.
Past Productions
8
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The first production of the play in 1836 in St Petersburg was greeted
by bewilderment; the audience had come expecting the usual farce, and
whilst the production included many comic elements, the characters were
disturbingly realistic and lifelike. The play was considered by many to be
an insult, although reportedly the Tsar had enjoyed it. Gogol was described as ‘an enemy of the state’.
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The 1870 production of the revised text at the same theatre, instead of
staging the performance in contemporary dress, set the play in the 1830s.
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Stanivlaski’s 1908 production of The Government Inspector was staged
at the Moscow Art Theatre to celebrate the centenary of Gogol’s birth.
The production was highly naturalistic; great care was take that the set
and props should be authentic and that the small town should appear
identifiable as it would have been in the 1830s. Against this background
Stanislavski portrayed most of the characters as grotesque in an abstract
exaggerated way, with only Khlestakov and Osip appearing to be ‘real’.
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Stanivlaski’s 1921 production also presented the grotesque in a tragiccomic style, as if the characters were all in the grip of a mass psychosis.
It was in this production that for the first time the famous lines at the
end of Act II scene 2 spoken by the Governor were addressed directly to
the audience:
‘What are you laughing at? You’re laughing at yourselves!’
The character of Khlestakov was played by the famous actor Michael
Chekhov as a childish dandy who grows into a psychopathic monster
during the course of the play.
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Many Russian post-revolutionary productions of the play were highly
stylized and avant-garde, including one which had all pink settings, and
one that featured a toilet at the centre of the stage.
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10
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Meyerhold’s 1926 production in Moscow was combined Gogol’s original vision with his own experimental principles, uniting elements of
Commedia del Arte, symbolism, expressionism, pantomime and oriental
movement techniques with continuous musical accompaniment. Meyerhold adapted the play for his production, borrowing characters from some
of Gogol’s other works. Like our own production, Meyerhold’s was set
against an arc of double doors the width of the stage.
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Meyerhold’s set for the 1926 production of The Government Inspector
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Most English productions have been adaptations rather than complete
translations of the original text.
Peter Hall’s 1966 production set the action in rural ‘East Anglia, adapting
the speech to the dialect of the region.
In the 60s and 70s Henry Livings and Adrian Mitchell adapted the play
for the Radio and the stage, using the North of England as the setting.
http://www.britannica.com
Cover of the first edition
of The Government Inspector
Synopsis
Essentially the story of the play is one of mistaken identity, a comic device
dating back to classical times. The idea was suggested by the Russian poet
Pushkin, when Gogol asked him for inspiration for a comic satirical work.
Almost the whole of Act I is spent painting a picture of the degenerate corrupt
town where the action takes place and, more importantly, its people.
In Act Two Khlestakov, the bogus inspector, in reality a lowly civil servant,
is travelling from St Petersburg to his home. A fancily dressed, card-playing
young man, he is staying at the local hotel and unable to pay his bill. He and
his servant Osip discuss how they are to find the next meal.
The play immediately moves to the Governor’s office, where a letter has arrived warning of the imminent visit of a government inspector, who will be incognito. It is read to the local officials to their great dismay, and panic ensues.
Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky arrive and tell them that the inspector has already
arrived and is at the hotel. This is, of course, Khlestakov.
The governor leads a delegation to the hotel, pays his bill and invites him to
stay in his own house. His arrival creates amorous excitement for both the
governor’s daughter and his wife.
During his short stay, the young dandy is treated to generous amounts of food
and drink as well as numerous bribes from the town officials, the merchants
and the governor himself. He also receives delegations from discontented and
mistreated traders and townspeople, making complaints against the Governor.
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Khlestakov is caught out flirting with Anna and Marya and is inveigled into
promising to Marya, to the great joy of all the family. The governor and his
wife fantasise about a glittering life in St Petersburg.
Meanwhile Osip persuades his master that it’s time to move on; having borrowed the best carriage in the town, they escape at speed saying that Khlestakov is going away for two days to ask his uncle’s permission to marry.
As the family and the town celebrate their success, the postman arrives with
a letter he has steamed open in which Khelstakov reveals his trickery to a
journalist friend. The letter is read to the consternation of them all. At that
moment a policeman enters to announce the arrival of the genuine government inspector and the entire cast freezes in a picture of greed and stupidity.
Photography Keith Morris
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Themes
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Rank – Marriage – Money
‘The most important theme in the plot of a play is the desire to obtain a good position, to outshine and eclipse your rival..to avenge
yourself for being disregarded or laughed at. Does not rank, money
or a good marriage mean more to us today than love?’
NV Gogol ‘After the Play 1836
Justice and Injustice
‘I decided to gather together in one pile all the bad in Russia of
which I was then aware, all the injustices which are committed
in those places, and on those occasions where justice above all is
demanded of man, and at the same time, to laugh at everything.’
NV Gogol ‘ An Author’s Confession’ 1847
The very name, Khlestakov, suggest ‘whipping’ as if he is an
avenger sent to punish the officials for their corruption and petty
sins.
Food – hunger - neglect
The play is full of references to greed and hunger from the potbellied Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, to Osip and Khlestakov’s
fantasies about what they would like to eat.
Laughter
‘What are you laughing at? You’re laughing at yourselves!’
The Government Inspector
Gogol wanted to gather up all the evil and laugh at it; he sees
laughter as cleansing and purifying. The play suggest that it should
be a catharsis for the audience themselves; as in all comedy and
satire, it’s partly the uncomfortable recognition that this could be
ourselves that give it its power.
‘It’s too bad that nobody notices one honest person who does appear in my
play. In fact there is an honest, noble person who never leaves the stage. His
name is ‘Laughter’... not that frivolous laughter which serves only for idle
entertainment, but laughter which emerges from the man’s better nature..
without (which) the pettiness and emptiness of life would not have appeared
so frightening.’
NV Gogol ‘After The Play’ 1836
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Characters
THE GOVERNOR
Gogol’s view of the character
Antonin Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky
The name suggests a bag of wind, and also sharp practice and social climbing
He is a police governor rather than a mayor and had considerable power. No
longer young, he is far from being a fool. He accepts bribes, but with dignity. He
is quite a serious person, even something of a moralist. He speaks not too loud,
not too soft, not too much, not too little. Every word he utters carries weight. His
features are course and hard, as are those of any official who has worked his way
up from the bottom in a demanding service. His expression changes rapidly from
fear to joy, for he’s a rough-edged character. He is normally dressed in a frockcoat with button-holes, wears spurred jack-boots. His hair is short and grizzled.
Stephen Marzella on playing the governor:
The Governor knows exactly what he has been doing and continues to so, so is
not so ignorant. He's from the commoners, the lower end of the social ladder,
and has worked and bribed his way up to Governor. He is self serving and has no
moral conscience.
He has only himself and the fools around him to blame for the situation they find
themselves in.
What the governor desires most is social status, but a leopard never changes its
spots.
MARYA
Kate Quinnell on playing Marya:
I certainly wouldn't say the characters were good... They are people who are
totally caught up in themselves and their positions of power. Their reaction to
the "government inspector's" visit (panicking and trying to cover everything
up) shows that they are aware of their wrongdoings! Plus at the end of the piece
after the truth is revealed, none of the characters show any sign of redemption.
Instead, they only place blame on each other. I am confident that after the real
Government Inspector had visited, the characters and the town would still be as
corrupt.
I wouldn’t describe Marya as 'innocent', I would use the words 'naive' and 'immature'. She has lived a misguided life with no-one to set a good example of
honest, decent behaviour. Whilst she does nothing outrageously bad, she does
nothing virtuous either. She doesn't bat an eyelid to the bribery and corruption that goes on around her. This is probably due to the fact that she has been
brought up around this environment and knows nothing different.
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Marya craves to get out of her small, claustrophobic town and experience the
bright lights of St Petersburg. She is totally captivated by the visit of an outsider
(whilst the other characters are more focused on his being a ‘government inspector’) and is seduced by the exotic, flowery language he uses and his powerful, St
Petersburg status.
KHLESTAKOV
Gogol’s view of the character:
Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov.
The name suggest whip or lash, but could also suggest the snap of cards as they
are played.
A young man of about twenty-three, slender, rather silly and gormless – one of
those
People whom office colleagues call skivers. He speaks and behaves without any
consideration for anything or anybody. He’s quite incapable of giving his whole
attention to any single idea. His speech is convulsive and words jerk out quite unexpectedly. The more simple and ingenuous the actor in this part can be, the better.
He dresses fashionably.
Photography Keith Morris
Oliver Lavery on playing Khlestakov:
I studied this play for my Theatre Studies A-Level and it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever read before or since. And not just funny either, but stunningly
relevant. I think we all know a Khlestakov or two. There were quite a few at my
school...
Writers have suggested that the characters in the play don’t know themselves,
rather than that they are bad people – I think that’s quite right. I guess a play
populated entirely by monstrous villains wouldn’t be very interesting because there
would be little to relate too, whereas lack of self knowledge is funny because we
can recognise it.
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As far as Khlestakov is concerned I think he lacks any awareness of just how
out of sync with reality his own self-aggrandisement really is. He also lacks any
empathy whatsoever with any other living being, all other characters in the play
are just means to suit his ends. He is the centre and totality of his own universe.
Khelestakov is not very calculating at all. He doesn’t even realise what’s happening until quite late on in the play. I think that is precisely why he gets away
with it. He is so deluded that in on one level he actually believes everything he
says about himself. So everyone else believes him too.
I think he lives very much in the present moment and his immediate desires revolve around food, drink, gambling and women. Ultimately however I think his
desires are rather more grand - he wants to be seen as the very personification
of sophistication, wit and culture - more than that however he wants supreme
fame, wealth and power. In fact I think he wants nothing short than to be loved,
respected and feared by the entire population of the world!
I think Khlestakov doesn’t have a huge amount of control over his own body
and his physicality reflects his mind his which is disordered, jerky and compulsive. So keeping that in mind and running with whatever physical impulses and
instincts come up in rehearsal I guess.
OSIP
Gogol’s view of the character:
Khlestakov’s servant. A typical ageing servant. He speaks seriously, eyes usually
downcast – a moraliser who likes to preach sermons to is master when his master isn’t there. His voice is always even. When he talks to his master he takes on
a strict, rough and even slightly rude tone. He is more intelligent than his master
and therefore grasps things more rapidly, but he does not like to talk much and
is, on the quiet, a cheat. H wears a grey or blue threadbare frock-coat.
BOBCHINSKY AND DOBCHINSKY
Gogol’s view of the characters:
Are both short and squat and very inquisitive. They are extraordinarily alike.
Both have little paunches, both chatter at a great rate and assist their words
with gestures and handwaving. Dobchinsky is slightly taller and more serious
than Bobchinsky, but Bobchinsky is jollier and livelier than Dobchinsky.
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THE JUDGE
Gogol’s view of the character:
Lyapkin-Tyapkin; this means higgledy-piggledy.
A man who has read five or six books and is inclined towards freethinking. He
likes to conjecture and therefore imparts a profound meaning to every word he
says. The actor playing the part must keep a look of deep significance all the
time. He speaks in a deep voice, drawling, wheezing and sounds like an old
clock which first hisses and then strikes.
THE CHARITY COMMISSIONER
Gogol’s view of the character:
Zemlyanika; this means strawberry.
Very stout, sluggish and clumsy, but nevertheless a clever rascal. He is very
obliging and fussy
POSTMASTER
A man so simple that he is simply naive.
Photography Keith Morris
A final word from Gogol.
The cast must pay special attention to the last scene. The last spoken word
must have an electrifying effect on everyone simultaneously, suddenly. The
whole cast must in a single instant change its position. The exclamation of
astonishment must be uttered by all female characters at once, as if by a single person. If this is not properly observed, the whole effect may be lost.
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How Theatre works:
Questions to the Director (Gerry Mulgrew)
What attracted you to this play?
I’ve known about this play for a considerable time, and first read this version of it
in the mid eighties. I was immediately attracted by it’s sense of rhythm and comedy. The satire is unrelenting and forensic in it’s pursuit of the main characters
in exposing their foibles. It leaves no stone unturned and no turn unstoned. In a
similar way to Dickens, but much more ferociously, Gogol creates a unique world,
peopled by venal characters, who are depicted just the other side of grotesquery. It
is very funny and very accurate.
The play has also proved attractive to such diverse interpreters as Danny Kaye,
who starred in a sanitised Hollywood version in 1949, and the famous Russian
director Meyerhold, who made a celebrated experimental production in 1926.
Why this play now?
Although written in the middle of the nineteenth, the play has lost none of its
relevance for the twenty first century. Its subject is corruption and the abuse of
power in local government, which, by extension, implies all government. The light
has been shone on this kind of practice in recent years in this country, with MP’s
expenses scandals, mis-sold payment protection, dodgy mortgages, LIBOR fixing
and horsemeat sandwiches, to name but a very few examples. The play has been
in continual production since it was premiered in 1836. Unfortunately, there is
always corruption, petty or otherwise to combat, so it will probably never go out
of date.
Why live music?
I have been using music, played live, in the theatre, for around thirty years. The
theatre to me is a musical place, and perhaps this harps back to the ancient Greeks,
whose performance was an interlinking of text, music, song and dance. In an age
where the cinema dominates naturalism, the theatre has turned for inspiration to
older, sometimes ancient forms, as well as to abstraction and ritual, the use of non
theatre spaces, breaking the “fourth wall”, theatre as installation et al. The use of
live music is a similar catalyst, as it moves the drama into a different realm but
does so in full sight of the audience. Whenever music is hidden, the modern audience will presume that it is recorded. The great advantage of music played live is
that it can be infinitely adjusted to blend with the other elements of the action.
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How do you prepare for the rehearsal period?
If I’m working from a text, which is most of the time, I read and re-read it many
many times, in order to get the rhythm of the thing into my head. Beyond that, I
don’t prepare much. The way I work, I have to take each day as it comes, and adjust what I do one day according to what has happened on the preceding day. The
preparation really is choosing the right people to work with.
What is the favourite play that you’ve directed?
Perhaps it would be Portrait of a Woman (Portrait d’une Femme) by Michel
Vinaver. Written in the 1960’s it is an experimental play that tells the story of a
young woman in Paris who murders her lover. The play takes the shape of the
resultant trial spliced with flashbacks to her past. The form of the play is exhilarating, jumping back and forward in time, playing the beginnings and endings of
scenes simultaneously, using verbatim dialogue from newspapers, and a deliberate
mundane language. The play’s concern is as much with the ideology of those who
affect the young girl’s life and judge her, as it is with the facts of the story.
What would you like to direct next?
Since I’ve never done it, I would like to direct a play by Shakespeare. Perhaps
Midsummer Night’s Dream or Hamlet or Much Ado
Photography Keith Morris
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How Theatre works:
The Designer (Jessica Brettle)
Photography Keith Morris
The inspiration came from the constructivist designers of the 1920s and the
director Meyerhold who did a production of the Government Inspector that involved a design using a lot of doors. Also the wooden structured houses of Russian Villages. The floor is based on the pattern from a Russian rubel coin that
was given to me and seemed very apt given the nature of the play and is also a
very beautiful coin. The costumes are based around the 1800’s to 1900’s.
I researched into Meyerhold and the constructivist designers. Also Russian
architecture and the many wooden structures/houses and their design.
Gerry had very set ideas as to the needs of the play and we were both inspired
by this period of time in Russian design. Its a very physical play and therefor
the set needed to accommodate this. There was originally a whole climbing
frame structure to the centre of the set but this was done away with as there was
a need for a larger central acting space. Also we were limited to the size and
complexity of the set due to budget and the production was also touring to various sizes of venues.
This is a very fast moving physical production so it was important that their
was space and many exits and entrances thus the reason for the revolving doors.
Also the movements needed to flow from one scene to another and take on
many guises.
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How did you become a designer?
I worked as a Costume designer and wardrobe supervisor after originally
apprenticing without college training. After many years working in costume
I had become more interested in the design as a whole so I trained for a year
at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School on the Post Graduate course in Theatre
Design.
What would you like to design next?
Its a difficult question as there are a lot of plays I haven’t known and also
new writings that I have loved working on. But I guess being a fan of the
horror genre then I guess Dracula or any dark ghostly plays. I would love to
design for “The Ghost Train” by Arnold Ridley of dads army fame.
The Composer
How would you describe the style of music used in the Government Inspector
and why did you choose the style?
The style of music in the show would be ad hoc klezmer perhaps. The main
theme needed in the music was to mirror the sense of manic paranoia that saturates all the characters in the town and also be performed instantly, without a
conductor. I knew that some kind of Russian feel was necessary, listened to lots
of Shostakovitch and similar composers, then decided that was all too classy
and difficult; so I made up some music that was a lot easier to play. The old
Russian anthem was suggested by my wife; the tune at the start of act II was
one the director found on YouTube of an ancient Jewish virtuoso violinist playing at a wedding or Barmitzvah.
We were fortunate in the original production to have a cast of skilled (or willing to become skilled) performers who made the decision as to what the line up
of the band would be. We also wanted the band to have the feel of the ‘Town
Band’, rough and ready, I can imagine the characters getting together on a
Wednesday evening to have a practice for whatever event was coming up.
Special mention must go to Lewis Anderson, at the time of the first production
by Communicado he was a 16 year old musical genius who came on board
as a placement. He brought his clarinet and elevated the music somewhat. He
certainly gave my daft tunes a sprinkle of Jewish fairy dust.
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How did you become a composer and musician?
I have played music since I was a wee boy, first on the piano (I passed my grade
2 exam by 1 mark and then quit) and then on the fiddle.
My great uncle Bob was a farmer in Wigtownshire and apparently a very neat
joiner too. He made three fiddles- just for fun - and that’s why we started to
learn. My mother runs a Ceilidh band which I joined when I was about 12 alternating between fiddle and bass with my brother. Doing that every Friday and
Saturday night for most of your teenage years gives you a lot of opportunity to
use your imagination to try keeping things interesting and you learn a lot about
harmony. And warm beer. After training as an actor I did quite a few shows
with no musical involvement on my part but gradually tunes would creep into
rehearsals and shows. It was working with the Glasgow-based company called
Vanishing Point that I started composing in earnest, first of all balladeer style
songs and eventually as Musical Director of a 7-piece Kosovan band for the
show Subway. This process taught me a lot.
Since then I am mostly working as a performer/Musical Director for anyone that
asks me.
Photography Keith Morris
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How Theatre works:
The Stage Manager (Fran Craig)
This is the work the stage manager does when working on a production like The
Government Inspector:
Read the script
Attend pre production meetings
Compile props lists
Get the props (for rehearsals and performances). Borrow, buy and make required
items when necessary
Mark up the set for rehearsals - if not using the set in rehearsals – by using tape
on the studio floor.
Schedule the rehearsals and do calls (in conjunction with the director)
Run the rehearsal room
Communicate with all departments - lighting, sound, wardrobe, construction,
props, scenic, designers, press and marketing - try and ensure all runs smoothly
and everyone knows what everyone is doing and who is responsible for what.
Compile settings and running lists for the show
Make provisional cue sheets for Assistant Stage Managers.
Look after the cast and crew.
Run the show.
Return any borrowed items
Archive all books.
How did you become a stage manager?
I completed a BA Stage Management Studies at Royal Scottish Academy of
Music and Drama. Doing the job is the best way of gaining experience in this
line of work.
Advice for anyone wanting to become a stage manager.
I enjoy the variety that the job brings. There are similarities in jobs I do but very
big differences. You do get to meet some interesting people and go to some different places.
Be prepared to work long hours in a full filling but sometimes thankless role.
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How To Become An Actor
Kate Quinnell (Marya)
Well drama and music have always been a big part of my life anyway. I studied
drama at Aberystwyth University and after graduating got the part of Eliza in
My Fair Lady at the Arts Centre. It was through that I got myself an agent and
it all went from there...
Having done My Fair Lady twice, I would find it really interesting to do
Pygmalion.
Stephen Marzella (The Governor)
I trained at the Weber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and have since
worked for most of the main UK theatre companies and for TV.
The roles I’ve always wanted to play are in film.
Pauline Knowles (Anna)
Well, from 1986-89 I attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music And
Drama (now the RoyalConservatoire of Scotland) and left with a B.A. (Dramatic Studies).
My advice to anyone training for the stage is to keep learning, be open to anything and, if you can, make sure you work with good people. You learn on the
job so you want to make sure that you’re learning from the best. Having said
that, you can learn a lot from a bad experience, too. Also, see as much as you
can. Again, good or bad, you can learn a lot. Finally, enjoy it and don’t take it
too seriously. It’s never a matter of life or death. Seriously.
Jams Thomas (The Postmaster)
I trained to be an actor at the Welsh College of Music and Drama and then
worked with a wide variety of theatre and TV productions.
My advice to anyone wanting to be an actor would be: Sincerity- once you can
fake that you’ve got it made!
Wendy Weatherby ( Musician/Avdotya)
I trained as a musician at the RSAMD in Glasgow after learning cello at school.
I was always interested in both music and drama and took part in all the usual
school plays and shows. Later I joined a band and started getting interested in
traditional music, which led to playing in shows and eventually writing music
for them, too.
I’d advise anyone considering going on the stage to try and be versatile, work
hard, remember that you’re part of a team, and enjoy yourself !
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Oliver Lavery (Khelstakov)
I always did a lot of acting when I was a kid. School plays and local competitions
stuff like that. I kept doing bits and bobs through University. I attended Bristol
University then I went to drama school and got an agent. I’d love to play Yorick.
Great part. Not too many lines.
Photography Keith Morris
25
Writing a Review
Reviewing a piece of theatre is a special skill. It requires you to concentrate
intensely on every bit of work that has gone into making the play and working
out for yourself, in your own opinion, whether you believe it to have been wellcreated or not.
Of course, opinion is the key word here – what you think or believe and then
publish for others to read may not be in agreement with the people around you,
and you may encounter criticism from other audience members for making remarks that they disagree with.
Be aware of everything around you – the set and lights make just as much impact
as the soundtrack or the actors onstage. A set design that doesn’t really help the
audience understand where they are will mean that a very-well delivered script
from some very fine actors will be partly lost. You may be distracted from what
an actor is saying if you can’t see them very well owing to bad lighting. The best
design for a show will count for nothing if the actors cannot be heard or have not
grasped the essence of the story they’re telling.
As a reviewer, you are really only an audience member whose opinion is spread
further than your friends and family and those who go to see the play with you
– therefore you are expected to be able to back up your opinions with strong evidence for your beliefs – be ready to defend your arguments, and go to see a lot of
different types of theatre so you get a sense for what works and what does not.
Above all – remember that yours is one of a number of opinions – it is not worth
any less than someone who is not publishing their thoughts on the play, but it
is not worth any more. If someone disagrees with you, you must be prepared to
stand by your argument. Therefore make sure that your arguments are fair. If
you see a breathtaking, awe-inspiring show, but some of the key costumes don’t
really work, feel free to say it. People are distrustful of reviewers whose reviews
are not balanced. If you only write uncritical reviews or reviews that seem to say
that you hate everything you see, people won’t trust you. And stand by what you
write – after all, as I have continually said, a review is an opinion, committed to
writing.
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A few tips –
-
Get in early – go into the theatre as soon as the doors open and, if
the set is on display, get a feel for how it might work
-
Examine Everything – take time in the show to think about light,
sound, set and costume as well as acting
-
Think big but remember details – your review will sum up a lot of
work in very little space, so remember the broad sweep of the play
while keeping in mind the little things.
-
Be fair – Mention good and bad, but remember to resolve it all
into a general opinion of the whole play
-
Be concise – Sum things up without going off on long flights of
fancy
-
Stand by your work – Everyone’s opinion counts. Accept disagreement, but hold fast to your feelings. Agree to
disgree.
Paddy Cooper, freelance theatre reviewer
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Example of a review written for the 2010 production of The
Government Inspector
The Government Inspector, Tron theatre
Clare Brennan
The Observer, Sunday 21 February 2010
“I sincerely hope he would have loved it.” So says director Gerry Mulgrew,
dedicating this Communicado/Tron co-production to the memory of Adrian
Mitchell, who wrote this hilarious adaptation of Gogol’s 1836 satire. His wish
is surely fulfilled. This period-set Government Inspector is not good, it’s great.
Every theatrical element is used to one glorious end: to make the audience
laugh and, at the same time, to confront us with our own responsibility for those
venalities and vices that multiply suffering in the world. Jokes aren’t confined
to the sock-it-to-’em text: lighting effects, songs and even the sofa all join in the
action. The ever-relevant story - of the terror inspired in the corrupt officials of a
small provincial Russian town at the thought that a government inspector has arrived incognito in their midst – demands actors who combine pantomime timing
and expressionist physicality with profound psychological understanding. This
cast has the lot, with (in a magically snow-dashing troika) bells on.
Sources and Further Reading
Gogol, NV The Government Inspector, adapted by Adrian Mitchell, London,
Methuen, 2001
Worrall, N Nikolai Gogol and Ivan Turgenev, London, Macmillan, 1982
Erlich, V Gogol, London, Yale University Press, 1969
Simmons, E J Introduction to Russian Realism, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1965
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.britannica.com
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Photography Keith Morris