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THE SHIFTING POINT OF FEAR AND TREMBLING GEORGY TOVSTONOGOV: THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR, 1973 o> 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.
