Government corruption appears they have been all too prevalent since Ukrainian playwright Nikolai Gogol penned The Government Inspector over 170 years ago. Following rave reviews and a sell-out tour, Scotland’s acclaimed theatre company Communicado are about to revive the production for Perth Theatre.
The 59-year-old actor, writer and director is also busy working on a touring co-production between Communicado and the National Theatre of Scotland for the Autumn.
“It’s a small-scale rural tour of the country, mostly up north and there are two pieces,” he explains.
“There’s a new piece written by David Haddow called Calum’s Road, based on a true story about a crofter on the Isle of Raasay near Skye who single-handedly built a two mile stretch of road.
“We’re also taking out a piece I wrote a number of years ago called Tall Tales for Small People, which is a family show based on traditional Scottish stories I got from the late modern-day storyteller Duncan Williamson.
“I adapted some of these stories and I have been working on the script, redoing bits of it. Some are quite scary, but funny as well.”
Born in Glasgow and now living in Midlothian, Gerry is a well-known face on stage in the Tayside area. In 2008, he and the Dundee Rep’s Keith Fleming won a joint “Best Actor” CATS award for their shared role as the young and old lead character in the theatre’s production of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt.
He founded the trailblazing theatre company Communicado in 1983 to find a new way of making Scottish theatre that would be distinct and powerful.
Born in poverty, when the arts were being starved during the Thatcher years, Gerry has watched the company’s fortunes rise and fall, and he says they still find themselves having to do productions on a shoe string.
“The UK is a fairly lean little country in terms of what it spends on the arts. Although they have generously funded national theatres, the rest of the sector is near the breadline.
“I think theatre is still relevant and I think the public still wants to experience it but it doesn’t have proper recognition from the politicians and the people who hold the purse strings.
“Things are getting worse, there has been a 30 per cent cut in England. It’s a dreadful state of affairs. I was speaking to a friend of mine who works in Germany and France and he said he couldn’t work here because he gets paid at least three times as much over there.
“These European countries must be suffering from the economic recession as well, but they have always taken the decision to properly fund their culture because they believe in it.”
He also bemoans the fact that the former Scottish Arts Council (now under the umbrella of Creative Scotland) originally came into existence to make culture more affordable to ordinary people by subsidising projects and bringing down ticket prices.
“These days, everything has to be a business and everything has to make a profit you’re looking at ticket prices of £25 and I think it’s an appalling situation.
“We’ve adapted The Government Inspector so we can play it with nine performers and every actor is playing lots of different parts. When it was written, there were big theatre companies but less and less are the public able to see productions that have a range of characters.
“I’m a performer and director and I’ve been doing it for 30 years. I give it my all but, quite often, it’s the artists who end up subsidising the arts so people should be grateful to us!”The Government Inspector runs at Perth Theatre until April 2.A penniless nobody from the big city arrives in a small town, where he is mistaken for an all-powerful government inspector by its corrupt and self-serving officials.
A farcical series of event proceed to unfold to comedic effect as the witty play exposes the reality about corrupt, petty power.
“It’s one of these plays that’s a great classic,” says actor Gerry Mulgrew, who directs the production and also stars as the Governor of the town.
“It’s very funny and, unfortunately, one that’s always relevant because it’s about corruption in local government. It’s nice to think that kind of thing might one day be eradicated, but it’s something that is always with us.”
Last at Perth Theatre with his hugely popular adaptation of Tam O’ Shanter, which marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Gerry and his company were asked to bring the award-winning production of the Government Inspector back to the stage.
“It played in Glasgow, then it went on a wee tour. Perth Theatre asked us to revive it, so we did, because we’ve always had a fruitful relationship with them,” Gerry explains.
“I’m in it this time because the actor who played the Governor couldn’t do it. I’m the most corrupt character. It’s a fantastic part to play.
“Basically, he’s the chief culprit. It’s quite a political play in that sections of the population are kept down and these people have to salute him. The guy is corrupt he’s taking backhanders, but he’s not an out and out baddie, he’s just human and he’s looking out for himself.
“The whole thing is a blag and it’s a great blag. The councillors hear there is a government inspector coming to investigate the province, and he is travelling incognito. This is essential to the plot because nobody knows who he is, and they mistake him for this young man.
“It’s very cleverly done so that neither of the characters tumble to what’s going on. They’re buttering him up, getting him drunk and bribing him all sorts of things and they think they’ve got away with it, but they haven’t, because the real government inspector has been there all along!”
Despite it being written well over a century ago, Mulgrew says the wonderful thing about classic plays such as The Government Inspector is the themes and scenes remain universal.
“We are using a modern translation from the 1980s by the poet Adrian Mitchell, who wrote it for the National Theatre in London when Rik Mayall was in it,” he says.
“It’s just one of those plays that will always run, because they’ve got such a great stories in them, they transcend ages and nationalities like Shakespeare or Chekhov.”
The production won a 2010 CATS award (Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland) for best use of music and sound thanks to its fast-paced live Balkan-fused music, with musical director Alasdair Macrae taking the accolade. Gerry says if there is one lesson you can learn from the play, it’s don’t get caught or behave yourself in the first place.
A penniless nobody from the big city arrives in a small town, where he is mistaken for an all-powerful government inspector by its corrupt and self-serving officials.
A farcical series of event proceed to unfold to comedic effect as the witty play exposes the reality about corrupt, petty power.
“It’s one of these plays that’s a great classic,” says actor Gerry Mulgrew, who directs the production and also stars as the Governor of the town.
“It’s very funny and, unfortunately, one that’s always relevant because it’s about corruption in local government. It’s nice to think that kind of thing might one day be eradicated, but it’s something that is always with us.”
Last at Perth Theatre with his hugely popular adaptation of Tam O’ Shanter, which marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Gerry and his company were asked to bring the award-winning production of the Government Inspector back to the stage.
“It played in Glasgow, then it went on a wee tour. Perth Theatre asked us to revive it, so we did, because we’ve always had a fruitful relationship with them,” Gerry explains.
“I’m in it this time because the actor who played the Governor couldn’t do it. I’m the most corrupt character. It’s a fantastic part to play.
“Basically, he’s the chief culprit. It’s quite a political play in that sections of the population are kept down and these people have to salute him. The guy is corrupt he’s taking backhanders, but he’s not an out and out baddie, he’s just human and he’s looking out for himself.
“The whole thing is a blag and it’s a great blag. The councillors hear there is a government inspector coming to investigate the province, and he is travelling incognito. This is essential to the plot because nobody knows who he is, and they mistake him for this young man.
“It’s very cleverly done so that neither of the characters tumble to what’s going on. They’re buttering him up, getting him drunk and bribing him all sorts of things and they think they’ve got away with it, but they haven’t, because the real government inspector has been there all along!”
Despite it being written well over a century ago, Mulgrew says the wonderful thing about classic plays such as The Government Inspector is the themes and scenes remain universal.
“We are using a modern translation from the 1980s by the poet Adrian Mitchell, who wrote it for the National Theatre in London when Rik Mayall was in it,” he says.
“It’s just one of those plays that will always run, because they’ve got such a great stories in them, they transcend ages and nationalities like Shakespeare or Chekhov.”
The production won a 2010 CATS award (Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland) for best use of music and sound thanks to its fast-paced live Balkan-fused music, with musical director Alasdair Macrae taking the accolade. Gerry says if there is one lesson you can learn from the play, it’s don’t get caught or behave yourself in the first place.