Town Tizzy

By T.E.K.

THE INSPECTOR GENERAL

by Nikolai Gogol

Bureaucracy, corruption, greed, sycophancy and fear lend themselves to comedy of universal scope, and that is why Gogol's The Inspector General, written 143 years ago, was born deathless.

The mayor of a tiny provincial Russian town, whose name, Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, is almost larger than his constituency, has been tipped off that a government agent of high rank is coming, incognito, to inspect local fiscal affairs. Since the mayor (The odore Bikel) and his appointed underlings are as crooked as counterfeit rubles, they are understandably panicky.

There is plenty to investigate. Early in the play, we learn that mental patients wander around the town's hospital on their own, reeking of vodka and filth. Charity cases are left to die. The town cop is a chronic alcoholic who terrorizes the populace. The postmaster opens all the mail and pockets the letters that amuse him. As for the mayor, he is an embezzler who never forgets a good bribe.

As these officials live by deceit, they are slaves of self-deception. Trying to identify the incognito inspector, they settle on a newcomer at the local hotel who has overdrawn his credit and is foppish, imperious and curious. Actually, Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov (Max Wright) is a petty clerk who has gone broke gambling. When the mayor approaches him, Khlestakov assumes that he is about to be thrown into jail. As the mutual misconceptions multiply, the fun flies like fur.

Puzzled but pleased by his appointed role, the "inspector" bilks the town fathers out of all their ready cash, almost seduces the mayor's wife and daughter and promptly blows town. Like a doomsday bell, the play ends with the imminent arrival of the real inspector general.

Gogol promised Pushkin, who gave him the idea for the plot, that his play would be "funnier than hell." It is fair to assume that Gogol meant the stress to fall equally on the first and last words. Greatly gifted though he is, Rumanian Director Liviu Ciulei has ignored the balance and projected the work as knockabout farce with an infusion of German impressionism. The result is that the characters become animated puppets and imbecilic caricatures of venality. They are robbed of the quality of vulnerable humanity that lies at the heart of the play, the play wright's mitigating sympathy for people subject to the coercive pressures of social custom and national temperament that sometimes erode individual integrity. The cast ably executes what Ciulei obviously wants, but did Gogol want it?

-- T.E.K.

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