The Government Inspector
by Nikolai Gogol
Company: The Citizens' Company
Venue: Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow
Performance dates: February - March 1973
Synopsis: A scathing satire on bureaucracy and corruption. In a small town at the back of nowhere corruption is rife and the Mayor (Provost) and his cronies have got it made. Then they learn they're going to be subject to an undercover government inspection, and panic. Mistaking a penniless nobody for the inspector they swiftly fall victims to their own stupidity and greed. This comedy looks at the lengths petty officials will go to cover their inefficiency.
Cast:
| Judge of the District Court | - | Jonathan Levy |
| Superintendent of Schools | - | John Truscott |
| Warden of the Charitable Foundations | - | Patrick Hannaway |
| Doctor | - | Cornelius Garrett |
| Provost | - | LEWIS COLLINS |
| Postmaster | - | Peter Kelly |
| Bobshinsky | - | Laurance Rudic |
| Dobchinsky | - | Peter Turner |
| Fisticuff | - | Rayner Bourton |
| Nogudnik | - | Benny Young |
| Ossip | - | David Yelland |
| Khlestakov | - | Douglas Heard |
| Napkin, a waiter | - | Cornelius Garrett |
| Anna | - | Jill Spurrier |
| Maria | - | Celia Foxe |
| Abdullin | - | Rayner Bourton |
| Merchant | - | Patrick Rice |
Reviews:
"The mayor (provost) is played with pompous authority by Lewis Collins, who gives an excellent performance from the first moment of panic to the last cry of madness when he is carried off in a straightjacket" The Theatre, 2nd March, 1973
"Lewis Collins plays the chief rural bigwig with a magnificent mixture of low cunning, fury, and eventually, stark terror" Glasgow Herald 28th February, 1973
"..the forceful, pompous and manipulative provost, a rounded performance by Lewis Collins" Jewish Echo,2nd March, 1973
"As the mayor Lewis Collins is quite remarkably successful in portraying the transition from the Napoleonically strutting figure at the moment of his imagined triumph to the pathetically grunting pig-like creature at the end." BBC Radio Scotland, 27th February, 1973