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THE SHIFTING POINT OF FEAR AND TREMBLING
GEORGY TOVSTONOGOV:
THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR, 1973
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Title: The Government Inspector. Date of Premiere: 11% March, 1973. Venue:
National Theatre, Budapest. Director: Georgy Tovstonogov. Author: Nikolai
Vasilyevich Gogol. Translators: Dezső Mészöly, Pál Mészöly. Dramaturg: István
Forgács. Set designer: Georgy Tovstonogov. Costume designer: K. Dobuzinsky.
Choreographer: Attila Bánhidi. Company: National Iheatre, Budapest. Actors:
Ferenc Kállai (Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmuhanovsky, Mayor), Hédi Váradi
(Anna Andreyevna, wife of the Mayor), Mariann Moór (Marya Antonovna,
daughter of the Mayor), János Rajz (Khlopov, Director of Education), Lajos Básti
(Lyapkin-Iyapkin, Magistrate), Gellért Raksányi (Zyemlyanika, Commisioner
for Health), István Avar (Postmaster), József Horváth (Bobchinsky, local
landowner), János Horkai (Dobchinsky, local landowner), László Szacsvay
(Khlestakov, a civil servant from Petersburg), Tamás Major (Osip, his servant),
István Pathó (Gibner, local physician), Richárd Szél (Lyulyukov), Lajos Sugár
(Rastakovsky), István Velenczey (Korobkin), Mária Majláth (Korobkins wife),
Elemér Tarsoly (Ukhovyortov, Police Superintendent), János Katona (Svistunov,
police constable), István Wohlmuth (Pugovitsin), Péter Szirmai (Derzhimorda),
Tibor Kun (Waiter), Miklós Benedek (Mishka, servant of the mayor), Imre
Sinkovits (Voice of the author).
CONTEXT OF THE PERFORMANCE IN THEATRE CULTURE
Halfway through Janos Kadar’s regime 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. The director was not really known in Western countries, but he was
advertised as one of the “top ten directors in international theatre” within the
Eastern Bloc.%° Although rehearsals had been rather strenuous for the whole
660 Júlia Potoczky: , Dolgozni jöttem", Néző, 8:3 (1973), 12. — As far as the director’s name is
concerned, "we usually write that his name is well known in Hungary. Let us change the
cliché: his name is wrongly known in Hungary. His work, his mises-en-scéne [...] and the
incendiary wonders of his directorial-pedagogical talents are well known. Only his name
is misknown. Actors, directors, theatre journalists and newspapers call him, say and write,
Tovstogonov instead of Tovstonogov." Péter Molnár G.: Tovsztonogov, Népszabadság, Vol.
31, No. 58, 10'* March, 1973, 7.