Revizor, or the Inspector-General

I find myself prepping for an upcoming production of the Revizor. Rimas Tuminas is reviving the production in Lithuania. He has been directing Moscow's Vakhtangov Theater the past several years, but returns to his home theater from time to time. Here is a clip from his first production in 2001. Previews show Sergei Makovetsky cast as the mayor, but will have to wait until the 29th to see!

Vladimir Nabokov noted in his book on Nikolai Gogol that the play languished under heavy-handed productions for decades before Meyerhold got a hold of it in 1926 and set the appropriate tone and sense of humor that Gogol had imagined. It is this version of the play that has come down to us. Pretty amazing given that the political climate in the early Soviet Union wasn't much different than it was in Russia in 1842, when the play was first produced, but then Nabokov warned that this delicious story shouldn't be read as political satire, but rather as a pioneering work of art, defying all theatrical conventions, confounding theater directors, critics and censors alike at the time.

The Revizor is considered the epitome of satire, and perhaps Gogol's greatest work. It seems just about everyone has tried his hand at this play at one time or another, including Danny Kaye in the 1949 Hollywood production. There is also a little known Egyptian version, which dates from Nasser's time, 1956. Here is the 1996 Russian screen production, featuring Nikita Mikhalkov as the mayor and Oleg Yankovsky as the judge. Unfortunately, no subtitles.

Comments

Ward No. 6

Ward No. 6 is a short story written by Chekhov in 1892. It has appeared in various collections of Chekhov short stories, including The Horse-Stealers and Other Stories translated by Constance Garnett in 1921. In this story, Chekhov explores the inner working of a run-down lunatic asylum in a provincial town. He introduces the readers to a coarse porter who speaks mostly with his fists, various patients, a doctor who presides over this ward, and expresses his thoughts with a local postmaster. It was recently made into a movie , featuring Vladimir Ilyin. Here's a clip . There's also this very recent short film (30 min.) by Suzana Purkovic, with English subtitles.

Roadside Picnic: Life inside the Zone

If you're like me and wondered what the hell Stalker was all about, I would suggest reading Roadside Picnic , the book on which it was nominally based. Tarkovsky took his idea from the character, Redrick Schuhart, a laboratory assistant and Harmont Branch of the International Institute of Extraterrestrial Cultures, leaving the rest up to the imagination. The names were changed to protect the innocent. While Tarkovsky chose to shroud the story in mystery, the Strugatsky Brothers lay it out pretty clearly in their science fiction classic. Redrick, the Stalker, has gone into the zone countless times but each time represents a new set of challenges, especially with the Harmont Branch cracking down on the plundering of alien objects left behind by a visitation to a small rural town in Canada. I suppose setting the story in a place outside Russia, allowed the Strugatsky brothers more room to explore new ideas and avoid heavy censhorship, but according to Boris in t...

Light and Dark

I'm still trying to sort out the ending. The story had to end tragically but was surprised that Rogozhin actually sought forgiveness in Myshkin after what he had done to Nastya, although I think that Dostoevsky intended the two to be read as one, along similar lines as The Double . He kept Rogozhin a shadowy figure throughout the novel, ever lurking in the dark of the Prince's soul. Try as he might, Prince Myshkin could not alter events and thus the fantasy world he had lived in upon returning to Russia crumbled before his eyes, leaving him at a total loss as how to reconcile himself with it. Once again, Dostoevsky plumbs great depths of the human soul. This is a psychological drama told in theatrical terms, perfectly suited for the stage. Characters appear and disappear as if moving from the shadows of the stage. I can see the "green bench" as the central stage piece. In the final part, one gets the sense that Lebedev is orchestrating event...

Chekhov's Gun

Search This Blog