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Volume 71, Issue 93,
Monday, February 20, 2006
Life & Arts Busy 'Inspector' ends on memorable note Gogol's ambitious, fast-paced play
should get
by JAMES DAVIS
Show of hands: How many of you have heard the name Nikolai Gogol? How many of you heard one of his plays is in production at UH? How many of you knew a play is being shown at UH at all? Don't all raise them at once, now. These are the problems facing the UH School of Theatre's staging of Gogol's The Government Inspector. Though the show itself is a riotous farce, it doesn't seem to have much momentum outside the theater. Gogol's story of a conman and corrupt village of saps still holds up from the 19th century, but the playwright's name doesn't attract the same attention as Oscar Wilde, David Mamet, Chris Durang or Steve Martin. Couple this obscurity with a publicity campaign that barely extends beyond the theater building and you get a production that, in one way or another, alienates its audience. You can sense this alienation especially during the show's first half. With no acts, the show consists of six scenes and a 15-minute intermission after the third scene. This structure lends itself to rapid delivery, and UH's production takes advantage of it. From the moment the curtain rises, there's frantic blocking, a whirlwind of exits and entrances, shouting, stomping and a general tone of panic. The life it lends to this 19th century farce is commendable, but the audience has not had much time to adjust to the play's environment before the pace picks up. Imagine jumping on a treadmill that's operating at full speed and you'll get the picture. The actors contribute to this phenomenon, as well. Each plays his or her character well, as far as animation, vividness and lunacy are concerned. The force of these characters, though, often draws attention away from the script. Rutherford Cravens, for instance, plays the mayor with a fantastic blend of fury and cowardliness. One moment, he's screaming at his townspeople to behave, and the next, he's groveling before Khlestakov, the supposed government inspector (Caleb George). Cravens conveys these motives with such genuine concern that he detaches from the script, abandoning articulation for the sake of emotion. Osip (Timmy Wood), the fake inspector's lackey, speaks with a strange blend of Brooklyn and Southern dialects, which somehow worked its way to Russia. Again, it's an amusing decision, but a distracting one, nevertheless. After intermission, the production finds its footing. It might be because of the way Gogol wrote the play, but it's probably because the audience has finally eased into the production's world. The fast pacing feels more natural in the last three scenes. The end of the last scene, in fact, is one of the finest endings of any UH main stage production. The lighting takes on an eerie tone as the town explodes in bickering and finger-pointing. The actors exaggerate their poses before the final blackout, and the effect is jarring and hilarious. But it takes much work to get to this end. Finding out about the production is difficult enough. Then, piecing through the first three scenes can give ticket-holders a run for their money. It's a shame to see a production so ambitious and, ultimately, so spectacular suffer from lack of publicity. Fortunately, those of you reading now know at least a little more. The Government Inspector plays at 8 p.m. Friday and
Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Lyndall Findley Wortham Theatre. Tickets
are $7 for students; $10 for seniors and groups of 10 or more; and $12
for faculty, staff and alumni. General admission is $15. For more information,
call (713) 743-3003 or e-mail sjudice@uh.edu.
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