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Contents page

Introduction for teachers 3

The Government Inspector 4 Nikolai Gogol his Life and Work 5

The Historical Context of the Play 7

Past Productions 8

Synopsis 11

Themes and Issues 13

Characters 14

How Theatre works: 18 The Director 18 Designer 20Composer 21 Stage Manager 23How to become an actor 24

Review writing 26

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IntroductionThis education resource has been compiled to accompany Aberystwyth Arts Centre and Communicado’s touring production of the play The Government Inspector, by Nikolai Gogol, adapted by Adrian Mitchell.

The pack is designed to facilitate further learning and discussion follow-ing a visit to the performance and also suggests curriculum links to the content of the play. The pack has a twin focus: firstly – a summary of key information, themes and issues arising directly from the play. Sec-ondly, resources connected to the interpretation, process and preparation for the production, including the rehearsal process and the design of the production. You can download additional copies of this pack from:http://www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk/resources

Please contact me should you have any questions or comments about the resource pack or about the support available to schools from Aberyst-wyth Arts Centre’s Performing Arts Department.I would like to thank the cast and creative team for their generous contri-butions to the resource pack and Creative Scotland and the Arts Council of Wales for their support.

Gill OgdenHead of Performing ArtsAberystwyth Arts Centre ggo@aber.ac.uk 01970 621512Spring 2013

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Cast ListThe Governor

MaryaBobchinskyDobchinsky

The PostmasterThe Charity Commissioner

AnnaJudge

Avdotya/MusicianKhlestakov

ProduCtion teamDirector

Written byAdapted by

DesignerLighting DesignerMusical Director

Movement DirectorProducer

Production ManagerHead of Performing Arts

Deputy Stage ManagerAssistant Stage ManagerTechnical Stage Manager

Set TechnicianWardrobe Supervisor

Wardrobe AssistantScenic Artist

TransportDriver

Communicado Assistant ProducerAberystwyth Arts Centre Administration

Press and Marketing

Photography

Copyright agent for theEstate of Adrian Mitchell

Special Thanks to

This adaptation of THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR was directed by Richard Eyre, firstly at the Nottingham Playhouse and then in his first season at the National Theatre, London in January 1985, with Rik Mayall in the lead.

Gerry MulgrewNikolai Gogol Adrian MitchellJessica BrettleSergey JakovskyGeorge DrennanMalcolm ShieldsAlan HewsonNick BacheGill Ogden Fran CraigNeil AndersonDanny OwenPete LocheryJessica BrettleChristine DoveKirsty GloverFly By NiteAndy EvansEmma CampbellMaris DaviesTrish McGuinnessLouise AmeryRachel ScurlockAlexey BogdanovDouglas RobertsonKeith MorrisUnited Agentsnstoddart@unitedagents.co.uk

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Citizen Theatre, Tron Theatre, Perth Theatre, Pitlochry Theatre

Stephen MarzellaKate QuinnellBarrie HunterIeuan RhysJâms ThomasGeorge DrennanPauline KnowlesMalcolm ShieldsWendy WeatherbyOliver Lavery

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Nikolai Vasilievich GogolThe writer – his life and work

1809 Born March 20th at Sorochintsy in the Ukraine. Gogol’s family were minor gentry. He had three sisters and one brother.His father wrote comic plays for private performances for the gentry.His mother was said to be superstitious and neurotic.As a child he was surrounded by folk tales and superstition.

1828 Left school and went to live in St Petersburg where he worked as a civil servant. He also auditioned unsuccessfully for the Imperial Theatre.

1829 Published a narrative poem, Hans Kuchelgarten under a pseudo-nym which was badly received. Gogol bought up all the unsold copies, burned them and went to Germany for 2 months.

1831 Became a history teacher in a young women’s college in St Peters-burg.First met the writer and dramatist Pushkin, a major literary influence on Gogol, mentioned in The Government Inspector.

1831-2 Published Evenings On Farm near Dikanka, a collection of Ukrainian village tales, an immediate critical hit.

1834 Appointed Professor of History at the University of St Petersburg, specialising in the Middle Ages in Europe. It seems he was not a good teacher but passionate about his subject.During the 1830s Gogol visited Paris and saw many plays and operas.

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1835 Published short story collections Mirgorod and Arabesques, which included The Portrait, Nevsky Prospect, Diary of a MadmanWrote the first draft of Revizor, later known as The Government Inspector. The play was based on an idea given to him by Pushkin, when Gogol asked him for a good subject for a satyrical comedy.Gave up teaching, and began work on Dead Souls.

1836 April 19th – first performance of Revizor at Alexandrinksy Theatre, St Petersburg and on May 25th at Maly Theatre, Moscow.Left Russia to live in Rome for 11 yearsThe Nose published.Gogol Began an 8 year process of rewriting The Government Inspector.

1842 Dead Souls published.

1843 Collected Works published, including The Overcoat. The plays Marriage and The Gamblers are performed in Moscow.

1845 Burned the second volume of Dead Souls – destroying 5 years work.

1846 Published Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends – areactionary defence of Tsarist autocracy and serfdom, receiving an hostile re-sponse.

1848 Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in search of spiritual enlightenment.Returned to Russia.Gogol became chronically ill, through self-mortification and malnutrition attrib-uted to religious mania.

1852 February 11th – burned the rewritten second volume of Dead Souls.February 21st – died in Moscow, aged 42.

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The Historical Context of the Play

Society: Gogol lived at a time of great intellectual change in Russia where the traditional Russian values of the Middle Ages were in decline and new ‘European’ ideas of capitalism, community and self-identity were beginning to emerge.Although it was some time before the social inequalities of the old system were to be broken down, this more open thinking did lead to a rapid influx of literature, philosophy, music and ideas from Western Europe. Some of the greatest Russian writers emerged during this time including Turgenev, Pushkin and of course Gogol.Gogol greatly admired the literature of Greece and of the Western European Middle Ages, as well as the German philosophers. He was an idealist, believing that Russia had a divine mission. However, politically, there is a contradiction in his work, whilst he states that he supports the existing feudal system, with landlords ruling over peasants, Gogol’s greatest works, such as The Government Inspector, show an impossible and crum-bling social structure, leading to a sense of an absurd world inhabited by grotesque characters and pointing inevitably to the need for social change.

Theatre:

There was no professional theatre in Russia before the 1750s (in England it began around 1570).Before then theatre was limited to seasonal and religious rituals.In 1702 Peter the Great set up a theatre in Moscow which staged plays by visiting companies from France and Italy.The first Russian theatre company was set up in1756 with the support of the royal family.They performed comedies, tragedies and history plays in the French style and also adaptations of Shakespeare.In the 18th century aristocrats set up’ peasant theatres’ on their estates, creating performances by their own workers.In 1779 the first acting school was established.1765 – 1840 – the first play by Russian dramatists began to be performed. The subjects of these plays included comedies social abuse and injustice, usually caused by the excessive behaviour of individuals rather than the system itself.The form known as Vaudeville was the most popular type of theatre around the 1850s. Vaudeville is similar to today’s Romantic Comedies

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The first production of the play in 1836 in St Petersburg was greeted by bewilderment; the audience had come expecting the usual farce, and whilst the production included many comic elements, the characters were disturbingly realistic and lifelike. The play was considered by many to be an insult, although reportedly the Tsar had enjoyed it. Gogol was de-scribed as ‘an enemy of the state’.

The 1870 production of the revised text at the same theatre, instead of staging the performance in contemporary dress, set the play in the 1830s.

Stanivlaski’s 1908 production of The Government Inspector was staged at the Moscow Art Theatre to celebrate the centenary of Gogol’s birth. The production was highly naturalistic; great care was take that the set and props should be authentic and that the small town should appear identifiable as it would have been in the 1830s. Against this background Stanislavski portrayed most of the characters as grotesque in an abstract exaggerated way, with only Khlestakov and Osip appearing to be ‘real’.

the plots are usually about young lovers who have to deal with obstacles to their happiness and the plays are interspersed with comedy and songs.Whilst serious political plays were censored by the government, Vaude-ville was encouraged as it was seen as non-threatening.Gogol performed in a Vaudevillian play whilst at school. Though critical of Vaudeville once he became a professional writer, the parody and comic elements in his work show its influence. Elements in The Government Inspector include use of word games, puns and play on the meanings of people’s names.Another popular form was the traditional puppet play. These folk pays often included stock characters with comic names and contemporary refer-ences, such as the ‘boastful Pole’ and the ‘daring Cossack’. Gogol’s father wrote such plays.Absolute government control over the theatre did not end until 1892.

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Past Productions -

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Stanivlaski’s 1921 production also presented the grotesque in a tragic-comic style, as if the characters were all in the grip of a mass psychosis. It was in this production that for the first time the famous lines at the end of Act II scene 2 spoken by the Governor were addressed directly to the audience:‘What are you laughing at? You’re laughing at yourselves!’The character of Khlestakov was played by the famous actor Michael Chekhov as a childish dandy who grows into a psychopathic monster during the course of the play.

Many Russian post-revolutionary productions of the play were highly stylized and avant-garde, including one which had all pink settings, and one that featured a toilet at the centre of the stage.

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Meyerhold’s 1926 production in Moscow was combined Gogol’s origi-nal vision with his own experimental principles, uniting elements of Commedia del Arte, symbolism, expressionism, pantomime and oriental movement techniques with continuous musical accompaniment. Meyer-hold adapted the play for his production, borrowing characters from some of Gogol’s other works. Like our own production, Meyerhold’s was set against an arc of double doors the width of the stage.

Meyerhold’s set for the 1926 production of The Government Inspectorhttp://www.britannica.com

Most English productions have been adaptations rather than complete translations of the original text.Peter Hall’s 1966 production set the action in rural ‘East Anglia, adapting the speech to the dialect of the region.In the 60s and 70s Henry Livings and Adrian Mitchell adapted the play for the Radio and the stage, using the North of England as the setting.

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Meyerhold’s 1926 production in Moscow was combined Gogol’s origi-nal vision with his own experimental principles, uniting elements of Commedia del Arte, symbolism, expressionism, pantomime and oriental movement techniques with continuous musical accompaniment. Meyer-hold adapted the play for his production, borrowing characters from some of Gogol’s other works. Like our own production, Meyerhold’s was set against an arc of double doors the width of the stage.

Meyerhold’s set for the 1926 production of The Government Inspectorhttp://www.britannica.com

Most English productions have been adaptations rather than complete translations of the original text.Peter Hall’s 1966 production set the action in rural ‘East Anglia, adapting the speech to the dialect of the region.In the 60s and 70s Henry Livings and Adrian Mitchell adapted the play for the Radio and the stage, using the North of England as the setting.

Cover of the first edition of The Government Inspector

Synopsis

Essentially the story of the play is one of mistaken identity, a comic device dating back to classical times. The idea was suggested by the Russian poet Pushkin, when Gogol asked him for inspiration for a comic satirical work.

Almost the whole of Act I is spent painting a picture of the degenerate corrupt town where the action takes place and, more importantly, its people.

In Act Two Khlestakov, the bogus inspector, in reality a lowly civil servant, is travelling from St Petersburg to his home. A fancily dressed, card-playing young man, he is staying at the local hotel and unable to pay his bill. He and his servant Osip discuss how they are to find the next meal.

The play immediately moves to the Governor’s office, where a letter has ar-rived warning of the imminent visit of a government inspector, who will be in-cognito. It is read to the local officials to their great dismay, and panic ensues.

Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky arrive and tell them that the inspector has already arrived and is at the hotel. This is, of course, Khlestakov.

The governor leads a delegation to the hotel, pays his bill and invites him to stay in his own house. His arrival creates amorous excitement for both the governor’s daughter and his wife.

During his short stay, the young dandy is treated to generous amounts of food and drink as well as numerous bribes from the town officials, the merchants and the governor himself. He also receives delegations from discontented and mistreated traders and townspeople, making complaints against the Governor.

Khlestakov is caught out flirting with Anna and Marya and is inveigled into promising to Marya, to the great joy of all the family. The governor and his wife fantasise about a glittering life in St Petersburg.

Meanwhile Osip persuades his master that it’s time to move on; having bor-rowed the best carriage in the town, they escape at speed saying that Khles-takov is going away for two days to ask his uncle’s permission to marry.

As the family and the town celebrate their success, the postman arrives with a letter he has steamed open in which Khelstakov reveals his trickery to a journalist friend. The letter is read to the consternation of them all. At that moment a policeman enters to announce the arrival of the genuine govern-ment inspector and the entire cast freezes in a picture of greed and stupidity.

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Photography Keith Morris

‘It’s too bad that nobody notices one honest person who does appear in my play. In fact there is an honest, noble person who never leaves the stage. His name is ‘Laughter’... not that frivolous laughter which serves only for idle entertainment, but laughter which emerges from the man’s better nature.. without (which) the pettiness and emptiness of life would not have appeared so frightening.’NV Gogol ‘After The Play’ 1836

Rank – Marriage – Money‘The most important theme in the plot of a play is the desire to ob-tain a good position, to outshine and eclipse your rival..to avenge yourself for being disregarded or laughed at. Does not rank, money or a good marriage mean more to us today than love?’NV Gogol ‘After the Play 1836Justice and Injustice ‘I decided to gather together in one pile all the bad in Russia of which I was then aware, all the injustices which are committed in those places, and on those occasions where justice above all is demanded of man, and at the same time, to laugh at everything.’NV Gogol ‘ An Author’s Confession’ 1847The very name, Khlestakov, suggest ‘whipping’ as if he is an avenger sent to punish the officials for their corruption and petty sins. Food – hunger - neglectThe play is full of references to greed and hunger from the pot-bellied Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, to Osip and Khlestakov’s fantasies about what they would like to eat.Laughter‘What are you laughing at? You’re laughing at yourselves!’The Government InspectorGogol wanted to gather up all the evil and laugh at it; he sees laughter as cleansing and purifying. The play suggest that it should be a catharsis for the audience themselves; as in all comedy and satire, it’s partly the uncomfortable recognition that this could be ourselves that give it its power.

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Themes

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Characters

THE GOVERNORGogol’s view of the characterAntonin Antonovich Skvoznik-DmukhanovskyThe name suggests a bag of wind, and also sharp practice and social climbingHe is a police governor rather than a mayor and had considerable power. No longer young, he is far from being a fool. He accepts bribes, but with dignity. He is quite a serious person, even something of a moralist. He speaks not too loud, not too soft, not too much, not too little. Every word he utters carries weight. His features are course and hard, as are those of any official who has worked his way up from the bottom in a demanding service. His expression changes rapidly from fear to joy, for he’s a rough-edged character. He is normally dressed in a frock-coat with button-holes, wears spurred jack-boots. His hair is short and grizzled.

Stephen Marzella on playing the governor:The Governor knows exactly what he has been doing and continues to so, so is not so ignorant. He's from the commoners, the lower end of the social ladder, and has worked and bribed his way up to Governor. He is self serving and has no moral conscience. He has only himself and the fools around him to blame for the situation they find themselves in.What the governor desires most is social status, but a leopard never changes its spots.

MARYAKate Quinnell on playing Marya:I certainly wouldn't say the characters were good... They are people who are totally caught up in themselves and their positions of power. Their reaction to the "government inspector's" visit (panicking and trying to cover everything up) shows that they are aware of their wrongdoings! Plus at the end of the piece after the truth is revealed, none of the characters show any sign of redemption. Instead, they only place blame on each other. I am confident that after the real Government Inspector had visited, the characters and the town would still be as corrupt.I wouldn’t describe Marya as 'innocent', I would use the words 'naive' and 'im-mature'. She has lived a misguided life with no-one to set a good example of honest, decent behaviour. Whilst she does nothing outrageously bad, she does nothing virtuous either. She doesn't bat an eyelid to the bribery and corrup-tion that goes on around her. This is probably due to the fact that she has been brought up around this environment and knows nothing different.

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Marya craves to get out of her small, claustrophobic town and experience the bright lights of St Petersburg. She is totally captivated by the visit of an outsider (whilst the other characters are more focused on his being a ‘government inspec-tor’) and is seduced by the exotic, flowery language he uses and his powerful, St Petersburg status.

KHLESTAKOVGogol’s view of the character:Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov. The name suggest whip or lash, but could also suggest the snap of cards as they are played.A young man of about twenty-three, slender, rather silly and gormless – one of those People whom office colleagues call skivers. He speaks and behaves without any consideration for anything or anybody. He’s quite incapable of giving his whole attention to any single idea. His speech is convulsive and words jerk out quite un-expectedly. The more simple and ingenuous the actor in this part can be, the better. He dresses fashionably.

Oliver Lavery on playing Khlestakov:I studied this play for my Theatre Studies A-Level and it was one of the funni-est things I’ve ever read before or since. And not just funny either, but stunningly relevant. I think we all know a Khlestakov or two. There were quite a few at my school...Writers have suggested that the characters in the play don’t know themselves, rather than that they are bad people – I think that’s quite right. I guess a play populated entirely by monstrous villains wouldn’t be very interesting because there would be little to relate too, whereas lack of self knowledge is funny because we can recognise it.

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As far as Khlestakov is concerned I think he lacks any awareness of just how out of sync with reality his own self-aggrandisement really is. He also lacks any empathy whatsoever with any other living being, all other characters in the play are just means to suit his ends. He is the centre and totality of his own universe. Khelestakov is not very calculating at all. He doesn’t even realise what’s hap-pening until quite late on in the play. I think that is precisely why he gets away with it. He is so deluded that in on one level he actually believes everything he says about himself. So everyone else believes him too. I think he lives very much in the present moment and his immediate desires re-volve around food, drink, gambling and women. Ultimately however I think his desires are rather more grand - he wants to be seen as the very personification of sophistication, wit and culture - more than that however he wants supreme fame, wealth and power. In fact I think he wants nothing short than to be loved, respected and feared by the entire population of the world! I think Khlestakov doesn’t have a huge amount of control over his own body and his physicality reflects his mind his which is disordered, jerky and compul-sive. So keeping that in mind and running with whatever physical impulses and instincts come up in rehearsal I guess.

OSIPGogol’s view of the character:Khlestakov’s servant. A typical ageing servant. He speaks seriously, eyes usually downcast – a moraliser who likes to preach sermons to is master when his mas-ter isn’t there. His voice is always even. When he talks to his master he takes on a strict, rough and even slightly rude tone. He is more intelligent than his master and therefore grasps things more rapidly, but he does not like to talk much and is, on the quiet, a cheat. H wears a grey or blue threadbare frock-coat.

BOBCHINSKY AND DOBCHINSKYGogol’s view of the characters:Are both short and squat and very inquisitive. They are extraordinarily alike. Both have little paunches, both chatter at a great rate and assist their words with gestures and handwaving. Dobchinsky is slightly taller and more serious than Bobchinsky, but Bobchinsky is jollier and livelier than Dobchinsky.

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THE JUDGEGogol’s view of the character:Lyapkin-Tyapkin; this means higgledy-piggledy.A man who has read five or six books and is inclined towards freethinking. He likes to conjecture and therefore imparts a profound meaning to every word he says. The actor playing the part must keep a look of deep significance all the time. He speaks in a deep voice, drawling, wheezing and sounds like an old clock which first hisses and then strikes.

THE CHARITY COMMISSIONERGogol’s view of the character:Zemlyanika; this means strawberry.Very stout, sluggish and clumsy, but nevertheless a clever rascal. He is very obliging and fussy

POSTMASTERA man so simple that he is simply naive.

A final word from Gogol.The cast must pay special attention to the last scene. The last spoken word must have an electrifying effect on everyone simultaneously, suddenly. The whole cast must in a single instant change its position. The exclamation of astonishment must be uttered by all female characters at once, as if by a sin-gle person. If this is not properly observed, the whole effect may be lost.

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How Theatre works: Questions to the Director (Gerry Mulgrew)

What attracted you to this play?I’ve known about this play for a considerable time, and first read this version of it in the mid eighties. I was immediately attracted by it’s sense of rhythm and com-edy. The satire is unrelenting and forensic in it’s pursuit of the main characters in exposing their foibles. It leaves no stone unturned and no turn unstoned. In a similar way to Dickens, but much more ferociously, Gogol creates a unique world, peopled by venal characters, who are depicted just the other side of grotesquery. It is very funny and very accurate. The play has also proved attractive to such diverse interpreters as Danny Kaye, who starred in a sanitised Hollywood version in 1949, and the famous Russian director Meyerhold, who made a celebrated experimental production in 1926.

Why this play now?Although written in the middle of the nineteenth, the play has lost none of its relevance for the twenty first century. Its subject is corruption and the abuse of power in local government, which, by extension, implies all government. The light has been shone on this kind of practice in recent years in this country, with MP’s expenses scandals, mis-sold payment protection, dodgy mortgages, LIBOR fixing and horsemeat sandwiches, to name but a very few examples. The play has been in continual production since it was premiered in 1836. Unfortunately, there is always corruption, petty or otherwise to combat, so it will probably never go out of date.

Why live music?I have been using music, played live, in the theatre, for around thirty years. The theatre to me is a musical place, and perhaps this harps back to the ancient Greeks, whose performance was an interlinking of text, music, song and dance. In an age where the cinema dominates naturalism, the theatre has turned for inspiration to older, sometimes ancient forms, as well as to abstraction and ritual, the use of non theatre spaces, breaking the “fourth wall”, theatre as installation et al. The use of live music is a similar catalyst, as it moves the drama into a different realm but does so in full sight of the audience. Whenever music is hidden, the modern audi-ence will presume that it is recorded. The great advantage of music played live is that it can be infinitely adjusted to blend with the other elements of the action.

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How do you prepare for the rehearsal period?If I’m working from a text, which is most of the time, I read and re-read it many many times, in order to get the rhythm of the thing into my head. Beyond that, I don’t prepare much. The way I work, I have to take each day as it comes, and ad-just what I do one day according to what has happened on the preceding day. The preparation really is choosing the right people to work with.

What is the favourite play that you’ve directed?Perhaps it would be Portrait of a Woman (Portrait d’une Femme) by Michel Vinaver. Written in the 1960’s it is an experimental play that tells the story of a young woman in Paris who murders her lover. The play takes the shape of the resultant trial spliced with flashbacks to her past. The form of the play is exhila-rating, jumping back and forward in time, playing the beginnings and endings of scenes simultaneously, using verbatim dialogue from newspapers, and a deliberate mundane language. The play’s concern is as much with the ideology of those who affect the young girl’s life and judge her, as it is with the facts of the story.

What would you like to direct next?Since I’ve never done it, I would like to direct a play by Shakespeare. Perhaps Midsummer Night’s Dream or Hamlet or Much Ado

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Photography Keith Morris

How Theatre works:

The Designer (Jessica Brettle) The inspiration came from the constructivist designers of the 1920s and the director Meyerhold who did a production of the Government Inspector that in-volved a design using a lot of doors. Also the wooden structured houses of Rus-sian Villages. The floor is based on the pattern from a Russian rubel coin that was given to me and seemed very apt given the nature of the play and is also a very beautiful coin. The costumes are based around the 1800’s to 1900’s.

I researched into Meyerhold and the constructivist designers. Also Russian architecture and the many wooden structures/houses and their design.

Gerry had very set ideas as to the needs of the play and we were both inspired by this period of time in Russian design. Its a very physical play and therefor the set needed to accommodate this. There was originally a whole climbing frame structure to the centre of the set but this was done away with as there was a need for a larger central acting space. Also we were limited to the size and complexity of the set due to budget and the production was also touring to vari-ous sizes of venues.

This is a very fast moving physical production so it was important that their was space and many exits and entrances thus the reason for the revolving doors. Also the movements needed to flow from one scene to another and take on many guises.

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The Composer

How would you describe the style of music used in the Government Inspector and why did you choose the style?The style of music in the show would be ad hoc klezmer perhaps. The main theme needed in the music was to mirror the sense of manic paranoia that satu-rates all the characters in the town and also be performed instantly, without a conductor. I knew that some kind of Russian feel was necessary, listened to lots of Shostakovitch and similar composers, then decided that was all too classy and difficult; so I made up some music that was a lot easier to play. The old Russian anthem was suggested by my wife; the tune at the start of act II was one the director found on YouTube of an ancient Jewish virtuoso violinist play-ing at a wedding or Barmitzvah. We were fortunate in the original production to have a cast of skilled (or will-ing to become skilled) performers who made the decision as to what the line up of the band would be. We also wanted the band to have the feel of the ‘Town Band’, rough and ready, I can imagine the characters getting together on a Wednesday evening to have a practice for whatever event was coming up.Special mention must go to Lewis Anderson, at the time of the first production by Communicado he was a 16 year old musical genius who came on board as a placement. He brought his clarinet and elevated the music somewhat. He certainly gave my daft tunes a sprinkle of Jewish fairy dust.

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How did you become a designer? I worked as a Costume designer and wardrobe supervisor after originally apprenticing without college training. After many years working in costume I had become more interested in the design as a whole so I trained for a year at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School on the Post Graduate course in Theatre Design.

What would you like to design next? Its a difficult question as there are a lot of plays I haven’t known and also new writings that I have loved working on. But I guess being a fan of the horror genre then I guess Dracula or any dark ghostly plays. I would love to design for “The Ghost Train” by Arnold Ridley of dads army fame.

How did you become a composer and musician?I have played music since I was a wee boy, first on the piano (I passed my grade 2 exam by 1 mark and then quit) and then on the fiddle.My great uncle Bob was a farmer in Wigtownshire and apparently a very neat joiner too. He made three fiddles- just for fun - and that’s why we started to learn. My mother runs a Ceilidh band which I joined when I was about 12 al-ternating between fiddle and bass with my brother. Doing that every Friday and Saturday night for most of your teenage years gives you a lot of opportunity to use your imagination to try keeping things interesting and you learn a lot about harmony. And warm beer. After training as an actor I did quite a few shows with no musical involvement on my part but gradually tunes would creep into rehearsals and shows. It was working with the Glasgow-based company called Vanishing Point that I started composing in earnest, first of all balladeer style songs and eventually as Musical Director of a 7-piece Kosovan band for the show Subway. This process taught me a lot.Since then I am mostly working as a performer/Musical Director for anyone that asks me.

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How Theatre works:

The Stage Manager (Fran Craig)

This is the work the stage manager does when working on a production like The Government Inspector:Read the scriptAttend pre production meetingsCompile props listsGet the props (for rehearsals and performances). Borrow, buy and make required items when necessaryMark up the set for rehearsals - if not using the set in rehearsals – by using tape on the studio floor.Schedule the rehearsals and do calls (in conjunction with the director)Run the rehearsal roomCommunicate with all departments - lighting, sound, wardrobe, construction, props, scenic, designers, press and marketing - try and ensure all runs smoothly and everyone knows what everyone is doing and who is responsible for what.Compile settings and running lists for the showMake provisional cue sheets for Assistant Stage Managers.Look after the cast and crew.Run the show.Return any borrowed itemsArchive all books.

How did you become a stage manager?I completed a BA Stage Management Studies at Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Doing the job is the best way of gaining experience in this line of work.

Advice for anyone wanting to become a stage manager.I enjoy the variety that the job brings. There are similarities in jobs I do but very big differences. You do get to meet some interesting people and go to some dif-ferent places.Be prepared to work long hours in a full filling but sometimes thankless role.

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How To Become An ActorKate Quinnell (Marya)Well drama and music have always been a big part of my life anyway. I studied drama at Aberystwyth University and after graduating got the part of Eliza in My Fair Lady at the Arts Centre. It was through that I got myself an agent and it all went from there...Having done My Fair Lady twice, I would find it really interesting to do Pygmalion.

Stephen Marzella (The Governor)I trained at the Weber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and have since worked for most of the main UK theatre companies and for TV.The roles I’ve always wanted to play are in film.

Pauline Knowles (Anna) Well, from 1986-89 I attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music And Drama (now the RoyalConservatoire of Scotland) and left with a B.A. (Dra-matic Studies). My advice to anyone training for the stage is to keep learning, be open to any-thing and, if you can, make sure you work with good people. You learn on the job so you want to make sure that you’re learning from the best. Having said that, you can learn a lot from a bad experience, too. Also, see as much as you can. Again, good or bad, you can learn a lot. Finally, enjoy it and don’t take it too seriously. It’s never a matter of life or death. Seriously.

Jams Thomas (The Postmaster)I trained to be an actor at the Welsh College of Music and Drama and then worked with a wide variety of theatre and TV productions.My advice to anyone wanting to be an actor would be: Sincerity- once you can fake that you’ve got it made!

Wendy Weatherby ( Musician/Avdotya)I trained as a musician at the RSAMD in Glasgow after learning cello at school. I was always interested in both music and drama and took part in all the usual school plays and shows. Later I joined a band and started getting interested in traditional music, which led to playing in shows and eventually writing music for them, too.I’d advise anyone considering going on the stage to try and be versatile, work hard, remember that you’re part of a team, and enjoy yourself !

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Oliver Lavery (Khelstakov) I always did a lot of acting when I was a kid. School plays and local competitions stuff like that. I kept doing bits and bobs through University. I attended Bristol University then I went to drama school and got an agent. I’d love to play Yorick. Great part. Not too many lines.

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Photography Keith Morris

Writing a Review

Reviewing a piece of theatre is a special skill. It requires you to concentrate intensely on every bit of work that has gone into making the play and working out for yourself, in your own opinion, whether you believe it to have been well-created or not.

Of course, opinion is the key word here – what you think or believe and then publish for others to read may not be in agreement with the people around you, and you may encounter criticism from other audience members for making re-marks that they disagree with.

Be aware of everything around you – the set and lights make just as much impact as the soundtrack or the actors onstage. A set design that doesn’t really help the audience understand where they are will mean that a very-well delivered script from some very fine actors will be partly lost. You may be distracted from what an actor is saying if you can’t see them very well owing to bad lighting. The best design for a show will count for nothing if the actors cannot be heard or have not grasped the essence of the story they’re telling.

As a reviewer, you are really only an audience member whose opinion is spread further than your friends and family and those who go to see the play with you – therefore you are expected to be able to back up your opinions with strong evi-dence for your beliefs – be ready to defend your arguments, and go to see a lot of different types of theatre so you get a sense for what works and what does not.

Above all – remember that yours is one of a number of opinions – it is not worth any less than someone who is not publishing their thoughts on the play, but it is not worth any more. If someone disagrees with you, you must be prepared to stand by your argument. Therefore make sure that your arguments are fair. If you see a breathtaking, awe-inspiring show, but some of the key costumes don’t really work, feel free to say it. People are distrustful of reviewers whose reviews are not balanced. If you only write uncritical reviews or reviews that seem to say that you hate everything you see, people won’t trust you. And stand by what you write – after all, as I have continually said, a review is an opinion, committed to writing.

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A few tips –

Get in early – go into the theatre as soon as the doors open and, if the set is on display, get a feel for how it might work

Examine Everything – take time in the show to think about light, sound, set and costume as well as acting

Think big but remember details – your review will sum up a lot of work in very little space, so remember the broad sweep of the play while keeping in mind the little things.

Be fair – Mention good and bad, but remember to resolve it all into a general opinion of the whole play

Be concise – Sum things up without going off on long flights of fancy

Stand by your work – Everyone’s opinion counts. Accept disagree-ment, but hold fast to your feelings. Agree to disgree.

Paddy Cooper, freelance theatre reviewer

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Example of a review written for the 2010 production of The Government Inspector

The Government Inspector, Tron theatreClare Brennan The Observer, Sunday 21 February 2010 “I sincerely hope he would have loved it.” So says director Gerry Mulgrew, dedicating this Communicado/Tron co-production to the memory of Adrian Mitchell, who wrote this hilarious adaptation of Gogol’s 1836 satire. His wish is surely fulfilled. This period-set Government Inspector is not good, it’s great. Every theatrical element is used to one glorious end: to make the audience laugh and, at the same time, to confront us with our own responsibility for those venalities and vices that multiply suffering in the world. Jokes aren’t confined to the sock-it-to-’em text: lighting effects, songs and even the sofa all join in the action. The ever-relevant story - of the terror inspired in the corrupt officials of a small provincial Russian town at the thought that a government inspector has ar-rived incognito in their midst – demands actors who combine pantomime timing and expressionist physicality with profound psychological understanding. This cast has the lot, with (in a magically snow-dashing troika) bells on.

Sources and Further Reading

Gogol, NV The Government Inspector, adapted by Adrian Mitchell, London, Methuen, 2001

Worrall, N Nikolai Gogol and Ivan Turgenev, London, Macmillan, 1982

Erlich, V Gogol, London, Yale University Press, 1969

Simmons, E J Introduction to Russian Realism, Bloomington, Indiana Uni-versity Press, 1965

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.britannica.com

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Photography Keith Morris