At Stratford: The Government Inspector

(ne of the best etforts ever

VER since its first produc-
tion (1836) at the Court
Theatre in St. Petersburg,

Revizor (The Inspector General)
has been an international clas-
sic. Actually, this satirical com-
edy by Nikolai Gogol applies
very much to our own day, and
indeed it was given a Canadian
setting in a CBC television
show several years ago. Danny
Kaye once appeared in a movie
roughly based on the subject.
Toronto Theatre of Action, in
the 1930s, presented the play
(with Wayne and Shuster in the
cast).

John Gassler, the American
theatre historian, wrote that it
was Gogol who stamped real-
ism upon the Russian theatre.

“The great Ukrainian,” he
said, . was a broad humor-
ist. like Dickens. But at the
heart of much of his laughter
lay disillusionment and disgust.
As he looked around him, he
saw a vast and potentially
great nation sunk in the mire
of listlessness.”

Michael Langham, who
brought the play,to the Strat-
ford Festival and who directed
it as one of his two farewell
productions, says of the come-
dy:

“In my view, his (Gogol’s)
Government Inspector is not the
farce it has often been treated
as, but a neurotic, nightmarish
fantasy—a high comedy of both
the absurd and the insane: of
the world we live in.”

It is the story (adapted by

Peter Raby) of a small, distant,
provincial town whose officials
are startled by the rumor that
an inspector from the capital is
about to investigate them sec-
retly. They think a _ penniless
transient clerk, stranded at the
local inn, is their inquisitor, and
they try to buy him off—bribes,
gifts, entertainment, the works.

Here is caustic humor, the
dissection of a small organism’s
establishment—its politics, its
officials, its townspeople—the
mischief, corruption, deceit, in-
efficiency, hypocrisy and out-
right crimes. (It could describe
a few Canadian towns today).

When, at the end, the mayor
hears his colleagues chortling
over some local scandals, he ex-
periences a moment of bitter
realization and shouts at them:

“You’re laughing at your-
selves!”

Gogol’s meaning comes through
beautifully in Mr. Langham’s
version. If good theatre is the
unity of the play’s theme, the
director’s conception, the de-
signer’s images (Leslie Hurry)
and the composer’s sounds
(Raymond Pannell)—all setting
the stage, as it were, for the
actors—then Mr. Langham’s
production is great theatre.

It is great theatre because
this is neither a ‘“director’s
showcase” nor an “actor’s show-
case,” but rather a blending of
brilliant acting, of virtuoso per-
formances (not one or two, but
a dozen) with the inspired di-
rection of a man who, now that

he is about to leave us, must be
acknowledged as one of the
titans of theatre, and certainly
one whose standards have en-
riched a generation of Canadian
stage workers.

In Mr. Langham’s staging as
in the other plays now in re-

There are 28 portraits in The
Government Inspector and some
15 background sketches. There
is not an indifferent perform-
ance in the lot.

Stratford has accustomed us
to expect such casting as Wil-
liam Hutt, the quasi-inspector,

Scene from “The Government’ Inspector’, William Hutt as
Khlestakov (left), Tony Van Bridge as the Mayor (centre).

pertoire, there are exciting in-
novations—the use of the flash-
ing “electric storm” strobe
lights to bridge the scenes and
provide their own excitement,
and the uncanny colored
light that accents the dream
sequences.

playing opposite Tony van
Bridge, the mayor, Leo Ciceri
the judge, Mervyn Blake the
welfare man, Christopher New-
ton the education director, Joel
Kenyon the doctor, Colin Fox
as postmaster, Barry MacGregor
as Dobschinsky, Eric Donkin as

Bobchinsky, Jonatht i
a policeman, John ¥ gy
police superintendit, rf
Behrens as the inspet

ant, Joseph Shaw au x cl
burgher and Patrick net
gendarme — not 10 :
Kozlik, Ann Firbank We ,
Bryne, Marilyn Lig el.
Dainard, Leon Pow ,
Blendick and Jane oat
Amelia Hall as the ™
and Roberta Max
daughter. These 4
finest actors. ul

William Hutt ;
Stratford restali
years. His Khlestake
spector,” is Um
most marvelous © ;
to date. His neat “at 2
thing—cunning,

lory. He is
Eoastes a seperti
and the most Pam
you ever saw.

The production west by
and never for 4 ee
recover from 9°. tlh
The comic sho nit ot Me
again and again
tioners, the ly? ‘8

osition 0
parts, and the ‘allt y
the realization 7) on
crisis is just @ . 0s
as the play comes in oh

The Govern yt a

one of stratford® sth
ferings in 15 a
theatre. _ aso

Essential services in USSR improving

By MONICA WHYTE

MOSCOW
N the corner where I live
there is a “parikmakhers-

kaya.” Originally the word
meant the wigmaker’s. Today
there are 723 such _ establish-
ments in Moscow, most of them
divided in two and serving both
men and women. At any hour of
the day, from 7:30 in the morn-
ing until 10 in the evening, 8,000
men, women and children can
be shorn, shampooed or shaved
simultaneously.

By Canadian standards, prices
are fantastically cheap. A sham-
poo and set costs half a rouble
—that is, 50 cents.

The man in over-all charge of
hairdressing establishments is
Sergei Belov. He runs the “Ser-
vice Bureau” which is respon-
sible for the tailoring and clothes
repair shops, the shoe repair and
shoemaking shops, the dry clean-
ing and laundries, the knitting
shops, funeral parlors—all types
of essential services.

It is a big job. Since 1963
there has been an enormous
push to catch up with lagging
and much-needed services. To-
day, Belov is able to say that
they have basically solved the
one-time shortage of hairdress-
ing and barbershop establish-
ments. They are still building
at the rate of 50 or 60 a year,
but mainly in the new, suburban
areas of Moscow.

The same healthy situation
pertains to the laundry and dry-

July 7, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 4

cleaning sections. Enormous
strides have been made in the
service field and yet still much
remains to be done. Hardly a
day goes by without a leading
article in one of the papers deal-
ing with the service trades,
general stores included. The
question of efficiency and cour-
tesy on the part of store person-
nel is a burning one.

As a Moscow resident of
several months, I can’t help but
feel that in the main, the big
problems have been solved. The
buildings have gone up, the
staffs have been trained. (No
mean feat: each year a special
school run by the bureau, and
Moscow Vocational Schools
graduate hundreds of hairdress-
ers, barbers, shoemakers, tailors,
etc.) The equipment, largely
Soviet-made, is also in no way
inferior to most Canadian hair-
dryers, laundry and drycleaning
installations, etc.

The problem today lies in the
little things, the sort of out-of-
date routine that a capitalist
boss would have done away with
long ago because it would cost
him business. For instance, if
you want to avail yourself of the
local laundry service, which is
good and cheap, you first of all
have to buy a little tape which
has your number on it which is
marked down in a_ book. At
home you cut out the little tags
and sew them on to anything
you wish to send.

The first time I went to the

One of the new _ hairstyles
from Moscow.

drycleaners, I made the mistake
of taking several items at once.
The girl first had to write a
number in ink on a tag, then
sew it on to the garment, cut
off all the buttons, then make
out a sheet in triplicate for each
article, each time writing my
name, address, phone number,
description and number sewn on
the garment. By the time I was
through with the two suits, a
pair of slacks and sweater I had
taken in, the queue behind me
had grown very long indeed.
At the hairdresser’s, there is
no system of making appoint-
ments ahead of time to save

waiting periods of anywhere
from 15 minutes to an hour. I am
sure eventually it will be orga-
nized.

I asked Belov about the train-
ing and wages of would-be hair-
dressers. After a two-year course
in a vocational school, graduates
are apprenticed for three months
in a shop. After this trial period
they go to work as fully quali-
fied operators. They receive no
basic wage, but 40 to 45 percent
of the price paid by the custom-
er. The hairdressers are graded
and every few years they are
tested and can move up in class.
The top rung is a master hair-
stylist, who, in addition to the
regular percentage, receives 20
roubles a month. At present the
work week is six days, but in
the near future the switch-over
to a five-day week will take
place.

In addition to the ordinary
beauty parlors, there are 16 sa-
lons in Moscow. These feature
experienced and top-notch styl-
ists, a cosmetics department and
pedicure and manicure services.

I made an appointment to visit
one of these establishments lo-
cated on Kuznetsky Most.

Rita Kuptsova, a_chestnut-
haired, attractive young woman,
is one of the top stylists in
Moscow. Last year she was on
the Soviet team that went to
Hungary to take part in a hair-
dressing competition.

From my own experience, the
haircutting, styles and pace of

work in the ad
to similar
Canada.

In the cos

slap on dpa "e) i

and other m K
culated to we
new woman. hav
in this field b
medical ss pea
one year’s § thé
The manage co Pad
Most salon, i post ae
has been in jist gs
ase as a Halted ofl
of a special

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period. a
I had beet real if
the Service Bui ne Saft

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set had sk kyrocs

and 50 kopeks 9 368, Ma |
had gone UP we
nae shaping aie
face clean-UP