A satire by a Ukrainian-born writer in which Russians trust a chancer who cruelly tricks them has obvious topicalities. The programme for Gregory Doran’s revival of Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector (1836) includes a letter from a Ukrainian academic bemoaning Putin’s attempts to claim Gogol as Russian, although the Kremlin dictator could not sit with any comfort through a play about the stupidity of rulers.
Nor, though, could Donald Trump or most leaders. In a show premiered, deliberately or not, on local election day in England (May Day in Russia), Doran strongly brings out how power can be a confidence trick in which both sides consent. The citizens of a provincial Russian town submit to the authority of a penniless nincompoop because guilt at their corruption has led them to think they deserve him. But Khlestakov, who they falsely believe to be their governmental nemesis, finds, as unsuitable overlords often do, that he enjoys control. In our context, the play can also be seen quietly to question whether the reflex sending of inspectors – into schools, hospitals, prisons – is distraction rather than action.
