Last week the UN Inspector came to town… or did he?!
David Farr’s contemporary spin on Gogol’s The Government Inspector relocates the action to an undisclosed nation, formally part of the Soviet Union. Hilarity ensues when the President and his aides desperately conspire to keep embezzled IMF loans, election rigging and general political unrest form Martin Remmington Gammon, who is believed to be the much-feared UN Inspector. The joke is of course that Gammon is not the official that that they think, but a former employee of Foxtons estate agents!
The production, which was deftly directed by Matt Burlington, featured some glorious swan-songs and some thrilling debuts. Tom Younger (G) and Adam Oliver (StA), both gracing the Stahl stage for the final time, gave two power-house performances as Martin Gammon and the President respectively. They showed great rhetorical skill and expert comic timing.
Making an equally impressive impact on the production were the first appearances of Minty Kunzer (N) and Sunny Woodend (N). Kunzer as the much-maligned Sammy, Gammon’s side-kick, gave an impressively inventive depiction of the character. Her diminutive stature underlining the absurdity of the President’s assumption that she was the UN Inspector’s Head of Security. Sunny Woodend gave an almost too real portrayal of the image obsessed Maria (daughter of the President). Her adolescent hair-flicks and unflinching disrespect for her parents were both wonderfully familiar and very funny.
But, as always, it was the strength of the ensemble playing which made this a truly special evening of theatre. The whole cast had such a fine understanding of this wordy, satirical text that they were able to communicate all of the plot-line’s twists and turns with machine gun-like pace and accuracy.
As one generation of Stahl stars pass the baton to the next generation, it is heartening to see that the future of theatre at Oundle is in capable hands.
N Jones