Tag Archives: Oscar Pearce

THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR

★★★★

Chichester Festival Theatre

THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR

Chichester Festival Theatre

★★★★

“brims with swearing, colloquialisms, double entendres, and joyful absurdity”

Nikolai Gogol’s razor-sharp satire The Government Inspector gets a bawdy and riotous reimagining in this new adaptation by Phil Porter, directed with pantomimic glee by Gregory Doran in his Chichester debut. Fuelled by farcical energy, the production is packed with verbal wit and physical comedy that rarely misses a beat.

The plot is deceptively simple: a small, corrupt provincial town panics at news that a government inspector is due to arrive incognito. When they mistake a feckless young civil servant for the feared official, chaos ensues. Enter Tom Rosenthal as Khlestakov, the supposed inspector, who quickly realises he can exploit the town’s credulous officials – a rollicking parade of grotesques, each more deluded than the last – for money, food, flattery, and more.

Rosenthal, best known for Friday Night Dinner and Plebs, brings his trademark hapless charm to Khlestakov, a delightfully louche fantasist revelling in the absurd power thrust upon him. In between extracting money, goods, and favours, he sets about seducing the Mayor’s wife (Sylvestra Le Touzel) – gloriously ridiculous, flirtatious, and determined to outshine her own daughter – and the daughter herself (Laurie Ogden), whose wide-eyed naïvety is tinged with a quiet desperation to be noticed. Ideally, he’d have both.

On first meeting Khlestakov in his sleazy accommodation, he seems somewhat subdued – especially compared with the cavalcade of comic officials who dominate early on with scene-stealing flourishes. But Rosenthal’s performance builds into a compelling piece of comic buffoonery – especially in a hilariously drunken return to the Mayor’s house after a boozy lunch. He is ably supported by Nick Haverson as Osip, his sardonic, long-suffering manservant.

Lloyd Hutchinson gives a standout performance as the morally bankrupt Mayor, his sweaty desperation rendered with delicious physicality. He’s joined by a motley crew of officials, each scrambling to ingratiate themselves and slip the impostor a few hundred roubles. There are strong comic turns throughout: Joe Dixon’s pompous Judge, whose knees keep giving way; Christopher Middleton’s cigar-fumbling Head of Schools; Oscar Pearce’s gleefully self-serving Charity Commissioner, all too happy to reveal the Mayor’s misdeeds; and Reuben Johnson’s jittery Postmaster. Miltos Yerolemou and Paul Rider are particularly entertaining as Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky – a Tweedledum-and-Tweedledee pair of nosy busybodies, obsessed with their own imagined importance.

These absurd officials are starkly contrasted with the town’s merchants, who visit the supposed inspector seeking justice, only to be swindled again. Leigh Quinn’s Sergeant’s Widow delivers a quietly devastating moment as she recounts being publicly beaten, revealing the scars on her back. It’s a grim reminder that beneath the foolery lie real-world consequences.

Porter’s script is sprightly and accessible, injecting Gogol’s 19th-century satire with contemporary irreverence. It brims with swearing, colloquialisms, double entendres, and joyful absurdity. Standout lines include Khlestakov describing the Mayor’s wife as a “randy old honey badger” and boasting he has “a pie in every finger” – playful, outrageous, and unexpectedly sharp.

The opening scene hints at something more substantial. The Mayor, pondering why St Petersburg might be sending a government inspector to their backwater, dismisses the idea of war – confidently assuring his colleagues that Russia would never be interested in such a remote place. It’s a fleeting but pointed allusion to contemporary geopolitics and a knowing nod to Gogol’s Ukrainian identity (acknowledged in the programme). While this moment garners a chuckle, such modern resonance is quickly left behind, as the production commits more fully to good-natured farce than to drawing serious parallels with 21st-century politics.

The production embraces the meta-theatricality woven into Gogol’s text. The characters’ frantic need to impress is echoed in the actors’ heightened delivery, exaggerated movement (thanks to movement director Mike Ashcroft), and frequent breaking of the fourth wall. The final “frozen tableau” – the moment of stunned silence when the real inspector is announced – is held just long enough to become hilariously awkward, prompting uneasy titters and a ripple of recognition.

Francis O’Connor’s set design captures a world teetering between grandeur and decay. The Mayor’s office-turned-drawing-room features filing cabinets bursting with paper and oversized doors that suggest delusions of grandeur. The inn’s squalid room, with its grimy skylight and claustrophobic scale, offers a stark contrast – and provides an excellent setup for a well-executed physical comedy. O’Connor’s costumes are a visual feast: lavish, absurd, and sharply attuned to each character’s vanity and social pretensions, particularly in the cases of the Mayor’s preening wife and posturing daughter.

Doran keeps the whole machine ticking with precision. The pace never flags. This is a lively and well-crafted revival that entertains with gusto. While it flirts with deeper contemporary parallels through its satirical edge, it ultimately settles for broad, enjoyable farce – and a very enjoyable one it is.



THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR

Chichester Festival Theatre

Reviewed on 1st May 2025

by Ellen Cheshire

Photography by Ellie Kurttz

 

 

 


 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE | ★★★½ | January 2025
REDLANDS | ★★★★ | September 2024

 

THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR

THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR

THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR

THE DOUBLE ACT

★★★★★

Arcola Theatre

THE DOUBLE ACT

Arcola Theatre

★★★★★

“It truly is a masterful example of dark comedy”

The Double Act is an incredibly witty and fiercely topical dark comedy by Mark Jagasia. It follows Billy Bash as he visits his estranged ex-comedy partner while on tour, discovering he’s now a reclusive madman obsessed with their past. As he appears to wear the title of Britain’s Third Most Offensive Comedian like a reclaimed badge of honour, he fails to recognise the descent of his comedy career. Can Cliff convince him to let him out the dark, and join forces to resurrect their old act? With darker forces from their past at play, that is doubtful.

From the very start The Double Act keeps the audience on their toes asking questions about the next mystery. Beginning with Billy (Nigel Betts) and Gulliver’s (Edward Hogg) search for Cliff (Nigel Cooke) in Cliff’s own flat. Gulliver is Cliff’s lodger, who appears to be deeply affectionate and attentive of Cliff, keen to get him back on stage. Yet after finding Cliff – and questioning whether his pet python is real or not – Gulliver’s true identity and motivations is another mystery the audience is esteemed to investigate. Jagasia succeeds in holding such intrigue and managing to keep everyone laughing with joke after joke that hit on almost every other line. It truly is a masterful example of dark comedy. The themes of forgiveness, guilt, value of laughter and retribution are constant throughout. Billy represents the ‘you can’t say anything nowadays, and yet I’m saying it with no consequence’ comedy brigade, where Cliff represents an almost Christmas future-like ghost of him. And unknowingly to the pair of them, Gulliver is their ultimate critic. The question of Billy’s morals within his comedy style is always alive, in a way constantly brought up by himself as he is persistently on the defence. As Cliff questions “What if some laughs are bad?”, the play takes a controversial and heated debate and transforms it into a meaningful and thoughtful conversation about the value of comedy.

The cast are undoubtedly incredible. Nigel Betts plays Billy with a stern focus, never dropping his proud successful straight man ego. His physicality also of his repeatedly breaking back made me wince. Nigel Cooke as Cliff was adorably child-like, in spite of his insanity driven creepiness. He excels in his physical comedy, as does Edward Hogg as Gulliver, both sharing hilarious moments of movement on stage. Praise here is pointed towards Movement Director Sian Williams. Oscar Pearce’s direction keeps the action constantly moving, assisting the play’s tendency of keeping the audience in anticipation. Overall making the very intimate space, with a wonderfully rundown naturalistic living room design of the set (Sarah Beaton), feel larger than life from the stalls. This is complimented by the subtleties of the sound design (Dan Balfour), which goes from silence to creepy horror music when driving the tension, alongside the occasional spooky snake sound effect.

Overall, The Double Act is a hilarious and exciting show that successfully brings life to comedy ghosts of the past. A masterpiece of dark comedy drama.



THE DOUBLE ACT

Arcola Theatre

Reviewed on 27th January 2025

by Rachel Isobel Heritage

Photography by Alex Brenner

 

 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

TARANTULA | ★★★★ | January 2025
HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTTS | ★★★★ | December 2024
DISTANT MEMORIES OF THE NEAR FUTURE | ★★★ | November 2024
THE BAND BACK TOGETHER | ★★★★ | September 2024
MR PUNCH AT THE OPERA | ★★★ | August 2024
FABULOUS CREATURES | ★★★ | May 2024
THE BOOK OF GRACE | ★★★★★ | May 2024
LIFE WITH OSCAR | ★★★ | April 2024
WHEN YOU PASS OVER MY TOMB | ★★★★★ | February 2024
SPUTNIK SWEETHEART | ★★★ | October 2023
GENTLEMEN | ★★★★ | October 2023
THE BRIEF LIFE & MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF BORIS III, KING OF BULGARIA | ★★★★★ | September 2023

THE DOUBLE ACT

THE DOUBLE ACT

THE DOUBLE ACT