The Shifting Point of Fear and Trembling in Georgy Tovstonogov’s “The Government Inspector”

Abstract

In 1973 The Government Inspector was staged by Georgy Tovstonogov at the National Theatre in Budapest as an example of the forced friendship between the Soviet and the Hungarian people. Although rehearsals were rather strenuous for the whole cast, the première achieved enormous success and started a dialogue with further mises-en-scène of Gogol’s comedy on Hungarian stages from Péter Gothár’s and Gábor Zsámbéki’s legendary productions in the 1980’s to László Bagossy’s and Viktor Bodó’s versions in the new millennium. The Leningradian director’s reading broke and created a tradition at the same time when it tried to discover a certain “plus” that can be set against the well-known interpretation of the play as a simple farce and a satire of country life in 19th century Russia. Tovstonogov saw this “plus” in global and cosmic fear as well as fantastic realism conceived as the principal character and the main style of the production. Turning up as a manifestation of the Mayor’s and his corrupt officials’ viewpoint obscured by utmost fear, the strange and the visionary thrust the play into infernal circles and presented the plot as the dance macabre of conscience. However, fear with the background of an autocratic regime made different interpretations possible and the production involuntarily initiated the mechanism of doublespeak. What was the privileged point of theatre people and critics alike and how did it vanish among members of the audience? My essay tries to find an answer to this question.