Date/Time
Date(s) - 31 May 2014
2:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Location
Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse
GoTheatrical! Captioned Performance on Saturday, 31 May 2014 at 2pm
Open captions available on plasma screens and closed captions available on mobile and tablet devices
Booking details at canberratheatre.com.au
Please request caption seats at the time of booking to ensure seats with the best view of the caption screens.
THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR
SYNOPSIS
“STONE HAS EARNED A REPUTATION AS ONE OF THE BOLDEST, BRIGHTEST YOUNG THEATRE MAKERS IN THE COUNTRY.”
— Time Out, Sydney
A Belvoir & Malthouse Theatre co-production
The Government Inspector
By Simon Stone after Nikolai Gogol
TO REPLACE The Philadelphia Story for Canberra’s Collected Works 2014 season Belvoir and Malthouse Theatre Company have today released information about an unexpected issue that has arisen with the rights to The Philadelphia Story. It has emerged that Ellen Barry, the wife of playwright Phillip Barry, was actually a co-author. As Philip Barry passed away in 1949 his work is no longer in copyright in Australia, however as Ellen Barry passed away more recently her copyright is still in effect. Ellen Barry was not publicly credited in published versions of the play. Indeed she spoke about her husband’s work in interviews without mentioning her authorial contribution. You don’t expect this sort of thing to happen but it’s probably not the first time a woman has done half of her husband’s work with no recognition.
Unfortunately the Estate of Ellen Barry has not granted Belvoir the rights to The Philadelphia Story so they will be co-producing with Malthouse Theatre The Government Inspector by Simon Stone after Nikolai Gogol (died 1852, unmarried) in its place.
The dates for the replacement production of The Government Inspector will be the same. The Canberra season will remain as 28-31 May 2014.
Canberra Theatre Centre Box Office staff will be contacting season ticket holders who have already purchased tickets to The Philadelphia Story or submitted a season booking form inviting them to take the same seats on the same night to The Government Inspector.
‘I’ve been looking for the opportunity to direct The Government Inspector for a long time, so I’m incredibly excited that we now are able to take this show on with such a talented group of individuals attached,’ said Stone. ‘It’s such a witty and cutting play, with real relevance to the political circus we see around us, day after day.’
Long before the 2013 Australian senate elections, Nikolai Gogol (Diary of a Madman) invented one of the great comic premises of all time: what happens when a completely ordinary, perhaps even sub-ordinary guy finds himself, more or less by accident, enjoying the full benefits of public power?
In a town somewhere – could be anywhere, really – news comes from the capital that someone seriously serious is coming to report on the state of this and that. Panic! And that indolent nobody Khlestakov finds himself the subject of all the fawning and excess of being somebody.
The Government Inspector is Stone and co’s reworking of Gogol’s piece de resistance. Stone has assembled a brilliant ensemble cast including Emily Barclay, Gareth Davies and Greg Stone, first class comic geniuses all as they cavort through Gogol’s great obstacle course of lunatic hilarity.
Seriously though: doesn’t it take a nineteenth century Russian farce to make any sense of Australian public life today?
Director of Canberra Theatre Centre Bruce Carmichael said he is excited about The Government Inspector as the play resonates with Canberra and can’t wait to see how Simon Stone interprets the play.
“We’re extremely excited that Belvoir and Malthouse Theatre are bringing this co-production directed by Simon Stone as part of our Collected Works 2014. Simon has been turning heads internationally and this show is Canberra’s opportunity to see his work in their home town.”
DIRECTOR
Simon Stone
SET DESIGNER
Ralph Myers
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Paul Jackson
WITH
Emily Barclay
Gareth Davies
Greg Stone