In this election year, councillors and other parliamentary types might be forced to examine their consciences, should they drop by at Cheltenham's Playhouse Theatre this week for a hearty basinful of The Playhouse Company's hilarious production of The Government Inspector.

...With more Welsh accents than you can throw a leek at...

Simon Lewis

Nikolai Gogol's timeless comedy satirising political corruption is transplanted from a remote outpost of imperial Russia to a small town in the Welsh valleys during the 1950s, and it's an undoubted success from the moment the male-voice choirs subside to the final collective scream of agony.

Rumours

The bureaucrats of provincial officialdom consider their petty agendas to be of secondary importance when rumours fly that a visit from a high-ranking government inspector is imminent. Suitably galvanised, redoubtable mayor Dai Williams assiduously marshals his acolytes, ordering them to extend every courtesy to the presumed bigwig, and thus ensure a favourable impression.

The two cultural worlds collide when the mayor, brilliantly played with colossal gravitas by Michael Charlton, welcomes the grandiloquent upper-crust Sebastian Smythe-Bates to his modest rural backwater.

Dazzling performance

Bob Devall and Malcolm Ball star as the uproariously amusing Siamese-twin flunkies.

Simon Lewis

Silken-voiced John Lomas gives a dazzling performance as the smooth, foppish fraudster, who soon has the local establishment fawning to order, only too willing to hand over their hard-earned cash at his merest beck and call, and throwing into sharp relief the readiness of subservient administrators to kowtow to anyone who represents a ruling authority.

Yet while we may deplore their blind determination to oblige the quick-witted charlatan as he imperiously holds court, the joke is ultimately on us, as we watch our own questionable foibles being played out for the better part of two and three-quarter hours, not a minute of which is one too many.

Kaleidoscope

With more Welsh accents than you can throw a leek at, and all convincingly mastered by a supremely capable cast, only two of whom are from the Principality itself, this buoyant presentation proves that, while some adaptations work well, there are those which positively scintillate, and this one certainly does, as a kaleidoscope of strong and identifiable characters gives this splendid incarnation plenty of backbone.

The funniest thing I have ever seen performed at the Playhouse.

Simon Lewis

Bob Devall and Malcolm Ball star as the uproariously amusing Siamese-twin flunkies Owen and Bowen, while Liz Shirley is equally delightful as the Mayor's bumptious wife Gwyneth. Sally Oliver shines as her wide-eyed daughter Myfanwy, as does John Morgan as stammering school superintendent Elijah Watkins.

Tony Maisey's portrayal of Smythe-Bates' Cockney valet Arthur provides some additional earthy humour at the expense of his pseudo-aristocratic overlord.

Hallmark

Appropriately costumed, and played out on Keith Jones' impressively expansive set, this Inspector also bears the hallmark of experience; with the direction in the skilled hands of John Shirley taking command of Gogol's masterpiece for the fourth time, you could be forgiven for thinking that this was indeed a professional production.

The funniest thing I have ever seen performed at the Playhouse, it has quality stamped all over it. A triumph.

Simon Lewis saw The Government Inspector performed by The Playhouse Company, at The Playhouse Theatre, Cheltenham, 16th April 2005

Review by Simon Lewis

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