Con men, government inspections, corruption and mistaken identity all cross paths in the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg’s upcoming production of Nikolai Gogol’s “The Government Inspector.”
When the postmaster of a small Russian town reads a resident’s mail and begins spreading the word that a government inspector will soon be arriving, local corrupt officials respond the only way they know how: with more corruption and bribery.
A visiting con man is mistaken for the inspector and things continue to devolve in the farcical Russian play, originally written in 1835.
Show director Stephen Schrum, associate professor of theater at Pitt-Greensburg, is moving the play to a much-more-recognizable time frame: 1985.
“Mr. Gorbachev has not yet ‘torn down that wall,’” Schrum said. “And the world of MTV music videos and the opulence of Wall Street lend their designs and costumes for a truly recent historical look.”
To further mirror current events, the playwright is actually Ukrainian rather than Russian.
“It sounds like a conspiracy,” Schrum said.
The play was first performed at the Aleksandrinsky Imperial Theatre in St Petersburg on 19 April 1836 at the personal request of Tsar Nicholas I, according to Drama Online, a Web-based resource for drama schools and programs.
Tickets (door only) are $10 and $5 for students and seniors.
The show will be at 7:30 p.m., March 26-28, with a 2 p.m. matinee March 29 at the university’s Ferguson Theater, 150 Finoli Drive in Hempfield.
