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THE SHIFTING POINT OF FEAR AND TREMBLING
Hans-Georg Gadamer. His reading broke and created a tradition at the same
time when it tried to discover a certain “plus” that could be set against the
well-known interpretation of the play as a simple farce and a satire of country
life in 198 century Russia. 7! Tovstonogov saw this “plus” in “global and cosmic
fear", thought to be the main initiator hence the principal character ofthe play,
and in “fantastic realism”, conceived as the main style of the production.‘”?
They shed such new light on The Government Inspector that a critic found
the production “going far beyond a revival and equaling a world premiere
of Gogol’s comedy”.®” In spite of “global and cosmic fear”, Tovstonogov did
not stage the drama of Angst but characterized social rather than existential
fear in the background of an autocratic regime.** He “revealed the author
of The Nose in the author of The Government Inspector, in other words,
the writer of fantastic-visionary short stories in the writer of comedies”,°”
and he approached Gogol “from Saltykov-Shchedrin, Bulgakov and Vampilov
i.e. from the rich tradition of Russian-Soviet satiric literature”.®” In lieu of a
tamed Gogol, a “wild” and “eerie” one turned up on stage in a different style
must hear the word of the age: it must strive at all times to answer questions that people are
interested in.” No author: Interjü Georgij Tovsztonogovval, Vilägszinhaz, 1:11-12. (1983),
39. and 38.
B.B.M.: , Nem bohózatot játszunk". Tovsztonogov a Nemzetiben, Magyar Hírlap, Vol. 6, No.
7, 8% January, 1973, 9. — As a result, Tovstonogov stated that he had to “mature” the play
for a long time after Dostoyevsky, who was “always very close” to him, and whose novel,
The Idiot he had already staged, aroused his interest in Gogol. Cf. No author: Tovsztonogov
a Revizorról, Népszabadság, Vasárnapi melléklet, Vol. 30, No. 184, 64 August, 1972, 8.
672 B.B.M.: „Nem bohözatot jätszunk”, 9.
6? Ervin Szombathelyi: A revizor. Tovsztonogov rendezése a Nemzeti Színházban, Magyar
Hírlap, Vol. 6, No. 69, 11 March, 1973, 6. — “We all have an idea of this play, far more
different from the one we met this time.” Ibid. — At one of the first rehearsals, Tovstonogov
said that they had to read the play with fresh eyes, because they were too much influenced
by tradition, and his actors in Leningrad had felt as if they had already played in at least
five different productions of The Government Inspector. Cf. Katalin Saad: A revizor prébain,
Színház 6:6 (1973), 3.
The mise-en-scéne focused on the representation of social life, i.e. on human relationships
explored in the spirit of Meyerhold instead of class relationships in the spirit of Marxist
aesthetics. Cf. "In the most shocking scene of the performance, a carriage is pushed onto the
stage, an old one, cut in half. We are confronted with the back seat, on which the company,
coming from brunch, is trying to take seat. They hardly fit in, they are huddling together,
sitting on each other and the drunken Khlestakov is lying on their laps, chattering and
boasting continuously. In fear, the trembling officials are cuddling him like a baby. They
lay him on their knees, put a pillow under his head, and when he falls asleep, they watch his
dreams with a lullaby so that His Excellency would be satisfied with everything. He was, by
the way, only His Highness in the first scenes, and going to be His Majesty in the last one,
as evidence of the possibility of rapid social ascent. Meanwhile, the magistrate spits out of
the carriage, and the hussar walking by the carriage swipes the saliva off his face with an
indifferent gesture. The social hierarchy is thus complete on Tovstonogov’s stage, both up
and down, every moment.” Gabor Szigethy: Gogol: A revizor, Kritika 11:4 (1973), 20.
Tamas Ungvari: Theaterbrief. Das Klassische und das Moderne, Budapester Rundschau,
Vol. 7, No. 14, 2™ April, 1973, 11.
66 Molnar G.: Tovsztonogoy, 7.
671
674
67.
a
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