Cyprus Theatre Organisation

09.1.2025

«The Government Inspector» by Nikolai Gogol

News

 

 “The police are against me, the merchants are against me, the intellectuals are against me. They denounce me and then run off to see the play. It’s impossible to find tickets!” So wrote Nikolai Gogol (Ukraine, 1809 – Moscow, 1852) to a friend in 1836, when The Government Inspector premiered in St. Petersburg, provoking great unease among senior state officials. In the one hundred and ninety years since then, the great Russian dramatist’s virtuoso farce has never lost its topicality. The corruption, greed and hypocrisy of those who exploit their position to feather their own nests and shamelessly flirt with power, indifferent to the citizens they are supposed to serve, has always been of universal interest.

Thomas Moschopoulos, one of the most important directors of the contemporary Greek theatre scene, who has won awards both in and outside Greece, now makes his directorial debut in Cyprus with The Government Inspector. He has also translated and adapted the play, and is assisted by an outstanding group of artists in creating the production. This version, which will open in February 2025 on Thoc’s Main Stage, twenty years after the play was last performed here, remains faithful to Gogol’s principles and values, challenging us to laugh at the state we are in, as, with Aristophanic mastery, it parades the malaise of bureaucracy and social corruption before our eyes. All the characters, without exception, are familiar. The Government Inspector skilfully highlights the ridiculousness of human nature when faced with authority.

The play was initially praised by the intellectuals of its time, first and foremost Gogol’s loyal friend Alexander Pushkin, who is rumoured to have given him the idea for its plot. The Government Inspector, this “vexatious” satire, is considered by many critics to be one of the most important pieces of world literature. In 2014, it was ranked by the British newspaper The Telegraph as one of the fifteen best theatrical works of all time.

The plot

The inhabitants of a small town in the Russian provinces await the arrival of a high-ranking government inspector tasked with establishing how its state institutions function. Until the moment they learn of the imminent investigation, the governor and civil servants are mired in corruption, deceiving, oppressing, and openly exploiting the powerless townsfolk. When a stranger checks in to the local inn with his servant, word quickly gets out that he is the inspector and in their efforts to curry favour with him, the town’s worthies indulge in flattery, mutual accusations, and self-abasement. In reality, though, the newcomer is a junior employee of a ministry, an unscrupulous wastrel who, having lost all his money at cards, takes advantage of the misunderstanding. The audience watches as the disintegration of the state apparatus and its functionaries is gradually and masterfully revealed.

The play

The Government Inspector was written over the course of two months, from October to December 1835, and premiered at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on 19 April 1836, in the presence of Tsar Nicholas I. The play’s bold satire divided that night’s audience. Some, recognising themselves in the characters, were outraged, and demanded that the work be banned and Gogol exiled to Siberia, while radicals saw it as a crucial, albeit humorous, critique of the existing social and political order. It took the personal intervention of the Tsar – who laughed uproariously throughout the performance – to save the production, which was threatened by the all-powerful Imperial Committee of Censorship that controlled the entire intellectual output of the country. The controversy surrounding the play and the relentless attacks on it hurt and disappointed Gogol, forcing him to leave Russia two months later. Thereafter, he only returned as a visitor for short periods of time and in the last years of his life, when his mental health was in decline.

The Government Inspector has been translated and successfully staged in many countries, and has also inspired film and opera adaptations.

The Director

Thomas Moschopoulos was born in 1965 in Bitola, North Macedonia, and grew up in Thessaloniki. He is a graduate of the English Literature Department of the University of Thessaloniki and the Drama School of the State Theatre of Northern Greece, and studied cinema at the Laboratorio Internazionale della Communicazione in Udine, Italy.

He is the artistic director of the Porta Theatre, where, in addition to his productions for the Main Stage, he also presents shows for children of all ages at the Small Porta, many based on plays he has written either alone or with Xenia Kalogeropoulou.

From 2001 to 2008 he was artistic co-director with Yannis Houvardas of the Theatre of the South (Amore), where he staged many contemporary and classic works. He has worked as a director, and occasionally as a translator, with the National Theatre of Greece, the State Theatre of Northern Greece, the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, the Athens Concert Hall, the Onassis Stegi, and the Greek National Opera, as well as with the Stratford Festival Canada, Soulpepper Theatre Toronto, Festival Dei Due Mondi Spoleto, Teatro Ponchielli Cremona, Teatro Lirico Cagliari, and others. For the past ten years he has regularly staged productions at major theatres in Canada. He has received numerous awards for his work both in Greece and abroad.

He was part of the artistic team for the 2004 Olympic Games, directing the artistic segment of the Closing Ceremony. He has directed opera in Greece and Italy, has made documentaries, videos and TV films, has produced radio broadcasts for Greece’s Third Programme, and has taught at drama schools and academies, and at universities, in Greece, Italy, Montenegro, South Africa, and Canada.

Since 2023, he has been an assistant professor in the Theatre Department of the University of Thessaloniki.

Creative Team

Translation, Adaptation, Direction: Thomas Moschopoulos
Associate director: Marios Kakoullis
Sets, Costumes: Vassilis Papatsarouchas
Choreography, Movement: Fotis Nikolaou
Music, Music coach: Anastasia Demetriadou (Nama Dama)
Lighting design: Georgios Koukoumas
Curation of photography/photographs: Vassilis Papatsarouchas
Photographs: Demetris Loutsios
Set and costume design assistant: Orestis Lazouras
Directing assistant (internship): Maria Pisiili

The cast (in alphabetical order): Dimitris Antoniou, Grigoris Georgiou, Panos Iosifdis, Erato Karathanasi, Valentinos Kokkinos, Nikolas Kourouzidis, Zoi Kyprianou, Panos Makris, Irodotos Miltiadous, Yiannis Minos, Neoklis Neokleous, Andreas Papamichalopoulos, Ioanna Papamichalopoulou, Polyxeni Savva, Christos Strinopoulos, Christos Tziotas, Giannis Varsos

On-stage musicians: Thomas Daskalakis, Julia Milasa, Andreas Theocharous

Performances

Nicosia | Thoc Theatre, Evis Gavriilidis Main Stage
From 14 February 2025
and every Friday and Saturday at 20:00 and Sunday at 18:00
and on tour

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