The Government Inspector

Nikolai Gogol, adapted by Patrick Myles
Alexander “Sandy” Marshall, Bird & Carrot, David Luff, and Wild Yak
Marylebone Theatre, London

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Percy Fopdoodle (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) Credit: Oliver King
Ms Swashprattle (Chaya Gupta) and Percy Fopdoodle (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) Credit: Oliver King
Percy Fopdoodle (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) Credit: Oliver King

Patrick Myles's unshaded Toytown pantomime version of Gogal’s The Government Inspector avoids political satire. None of the characters are believable. Everything is broad farce from a character falling out of a window to most of them at some point falling on the ground. Not that any of the other characters seem to notice when that happens.

Set in a town outside London during the 19th century, Governor Swashprattle (Dan Skinner) and his town council try to financially persuade the stranger Percy Fopdoodle (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) whom they have mistaken for a government inspector, not to report their corruption to the authorities.

To keep a better eye on the man, Swashprattle gets him to stay at the Governor's house, which suits Fopdoodle since he can then flirt with Mrs Swashprattle (Martha Howe-Douglas) and her daughter. They are impressed with his claim to know the Prime Minister and having seen the play The Importance of Being Trevor.

Ms Swashprattle (Chaya Gupta), is particularly taken with Fopdoodle and tells people she wants to see “his magnificent balls.”

However, Fopdoodle’s servant Fudgel (Daniel Millar) persuades him to leave the town before they are rumbled as con artists and gives him a pair of Swashprattles pantaloons to replace his lost trousers, despite Fopdoodle claiming they are so awful “even a refugee would burn them”.

Most of the characters speak in exaggerated tones with members of the council spending a good deal of the performance walking with backs bent in honour of Fopdoodle.

On press night, some people laughed and lots smiled, but a few vanished at the interval and a dazed expression haunted many faces.

Gogol’s important play has been seen as a brave challenge to those in power that could also make its audience rock with laughter.

This cartoonish production may have a good cast but it chucks them away on characters you don’t care about, a pointlessly silly script with no heart and a forced physical comedy that harks back to the long-dead pantomime farce of the 1950s.

Reviewer: Keith Mckenna

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