If you've followed
my blog over the past few years, you’ll know that I take issue with a lot of
Simon Stone’s work. As much as I disagree with some of the ideas in his
productions, the broader socio-cultural implications of his themes and the
depiction of women, as well as his predilection for using the same cast members
time and again, I find it hard to fault his stagecraft, the theatricality of
each and every one of his pieces. The
Government Inspector is no exception. A late
and much-publicised replacement for The
Philadelphia Story, it is in many ways a showcase of Stone’s work at
Belvoir (and, indeed, in Sydney
A metatheatrical
self-parody, it tells the story of a group of actors who were going to perform The Philadelphia Story, directed by
Simon Stone. When it appears the rights are not going to be granted, the
director quits. An actor dies. Another walks. Contemplating what they’re going
to do, they remember an Uzbekistani director who did a production of The Government Inspector and contact him
to direct theirs. A case of mistaken identity completes the story and Stone’s
play unfolds in a kind of madcap glory which only Gogol could have devised
(well, sort of).
