Oldal 141 [141]
GEORGY TOVSTONOGOV: THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR, 1973
than what spectators could expect and were accustomed to."" It went hand in
hand with a shift in focus on the Mayor and his company instead of Khlestakov
and a reversal of the scheme of the play formerly staged "as a comedy of
errors”, in which “the protagonist led officials of a small town by the nose due
to a misunderstanding”.° Whilst “in most productions of The Government
Inspector a tattling, foppish Khlestakov had aptly drawn profit from some
scary and imbecile officials”, this time “Khlestakov’s imbecility drew the most
cunning and dangerous weapon of sticking to power from the officials”.°”
In order to emphasize this reversal and the above-mentioned “plus”, the
standard translation of the play (created by Dezső and Pál Mészöly for Endre
Gellérts memorable mise-en-scéne in 1951) was revised and the omitted word
"fear" was set back in several places. Altogether some "180 corrections were
made", "9 and the first version of Gogol’s comedy was also taken into account
on the basis of a Soviet academic edition. Considerable omissions were only
made in the last two acts: scenes with the inhabitants of the town i.e. both
Khlestakovs and the Mayors dialogues with the complaining salesmen were
skipped."§! The setting and the order of some episodes were also changed, e.g.
the one following the visit to the hospital shifted from the Mayors home to a
half-cut landau that gave place to a spectacular ensemble scene and Khlestakov’s
appearance with his valet Osip in the second act was included in a series of
scenes with the officials’ debate in the first act.°** While Tovstonogov followed
Stanislavsky in explaining everything from the dramatic text itself, he organized
677 Cf. “This Government Inspector is not amusing in the superficial sense of the word. This is
frightening, chilling and embodies the kind of ridicule that is said to kill. I might say that
this production is sad, while, of course, we laugh at it.” No author: A revizor, Nézé, 8:5 (1973),
2. - “Laughter is extremely important. But it is equally important that it should not be self¬
serving. We are not playing a farce, we are playing Gogol, so we want to stage his famous
gallows humor and bitter laugh.” B.B.M.: , Nem bohózatot játszunk", 9.
Szombathelyi: A revizor, 6.
Tamás Koltai: Tovsztonogov és A revizor, Színház, 6:6 (1973), 9.
Saád: A revizor próbáin, 3.
Major: A revizor, 13.
Cf. “At the beginning of the play, a letter tells that a government inspector is arriving. Then
the two landowners discover the government inspector in the pub. The director interrupts
67.
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67
à
680
68.
8
the exposition here and presents, in a flash, who was discovered. A hooligan, a terrified worm
stuck in a tree, an improvident little bastard in debt. [...] And when we get back to the
interrupted exposition, we see the characters in a different way, so it will be much more
effective later on, as the two people meet, dreading each other.” Tamas Major: Tanultam
Tovsztonogovtól, Népszabadság, Vasárnapi melléklet, Vol. 31, No. 65, 184 March, 1973, 7.
— "Tovstonogov felt the need of only one structural change: the original first act was broken
into two with the scene of Osip and Khlestakov. However, the production has fully justified
this change, since Tovstonogov set the rules of the game? with this moment, extracted
from Gogol’s logic. The first phantom scene is immediately followed by the introduction
of Khlestakov and Osip, in which Khlestakov appears fully but ironically comme il faut:
‘Well, look, they will be afraid of him, they will see him as a phantom!’ [...] This episode is
there, Tovstonogov explained, to realize that this Khlestakov is a little boy.” Saad: A revizor
pröbäin, 3. and 6.
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