Event

The Government Inspector

Saturday, November 18th, 2006, 2:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Speaker: Nagoya Players

This comedy will be performed Saturday, Novermber 18, 2:00 and 7:00 p.m. and Sunday November 19, 2:00 and 6:00 p.m. Advance tickets from tickets@nagoyaplayers.info or Aichi Arts Centre Playguide, 052-972-0430, or you can buy tickets at the door. The Nagoya Players presents "The Government Inspector" by Nikolai Gogol, directed by Cameron Smith and Rachel Price. It begins in a bordello and ends in a brawl. Gogol's outrageous comedy of mistaken identity comes to Nagoya in a lively new English adaptation. The Mayor of a small and incredibly corrupt provincial town is sent warning by a friend that there is a government inspector coming in secret to "check them out." They panic. What if the inspector finds out about the psychotic school teachers, the drunken police chief, the corpses overflowing at the hospital and the systematic extortion and imprisonment of anyone who dares to work honestly? At the same time a mysterious, well-dressed young man is staying in the local hotel, watching everyone like a hawk, and paying for nothing. Thinking they have found the "secret " inspector, the mayor and his friends decide to feed him brandy, caviar and several extremely large bribes. Only, they 've chosen the wrong man: a vain, penniless, egotistical fantasist only too happy to be treated as "someone special." Alcohol, greed and lust push events along at a breakneck speed, as hopes, dreams and threats of violence mix together towards a dramatic comic finale. Acclaimed as one of the greatest plays ever to come out of Russian literature, Gogol's classic satire is constantly in performance all over the world, and has been translated into most major languages. This new English-language translation and adaptation has been prepared especially for the Nagoya Players by the director Cameron Smith, and is ideal for both native and non-native speakers:
* The story is simple and universal - no specialist knowledge of any culture is required.
* The language has been made less complex, while remaining broadly faithful to the original.
* The comedy is sharp both visually and verbally.
* One character (the hospital doctor) can only speak Nagoya-ben, not English - played, of course, by a French actor.
The talented cast of 18 come from nine different countries: the US, Japan, Canada, South Africa, the UK, Ireland, Italy, France and Australia. About the group: The Nagoya Players, from humble beginnings in an English professor's back garden, have gone on to stage first-rate productions of a wide variety of plays over the past thirty years, from classics to contemporary works. The group's membership consists of Japanese and expatriates, trained actors and talented novices. Educational materials based on this play are available for English teachers, including extensive excerpts from the text.

Organization: Nagoya Players

Cost: 2,000 yen (students 1,800 yen) advance, or 2,500 yen (students 2,000) on door

Venue: Aichi Arts Centre Mini-theatre, Sakae, Nagoya

Location: Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Contact Nagoya Players

Nagoya Players