The Government Inspector
Gogol’s drama is taking place between the lightning and the crack of the thunder (as Nabokov wrote). The lightning would be the information that the Government Inspector is approaching to one of the provincional towns in Russia, the cruck – the information that he finally came. The whole story, which is told between those two moments, exposes degenaration of the provincional society, being even more cruel while being based on a disastrous mistake.
The Government Inspector does not appear on stage. The main character of the comedy seems to be fear. From the loss and compromitation. From the stranger. And the more one has to lose, the bigger the fear is. It is the fear that drives the action of comedy. And brings closer the moment of final disaster.
’The Government Inspector’ asks for the roots of our fear. The machanisms do not change. We still search for enemies and look after our phobies, where we hide our negligence and weaknesses. What is the strongest Polish fear today? What kind of Government Inspector will we create this time?