The Canterville Ghost

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About the play:

It is the mid-19th century. The authorities of a small Russian town are in a state of uproar: a government inspector from St. Petersburg is supposed to check on them. Worried that the inspector will find out about the corruption, abuse of power, and universal incompetence that is endemic in the town, the mayor, the judge, the school principal and the hospital inspector plot to conceal their rotten deals from the inspector. What they don’t know: Hlestakov, a young man residing in the town’s only inn, is not the inspector they suspect, but an impostor – a vain, world-weary, gambler and drunkard who enjoys the respect the town’s dignitaries suddenly pay him and begins to take advantage of his new position. Bribes are taken, promises are made, and everyone seems satisfied, until the dupers find out that they have been duped...

Jeffrey Hatcher’s new adaptation of Gogol’s famous social satire improves on the original by making the dialogues snappier and the comic confusions funnier. The Government Inspector is a grotesque masterpiece about greed, power, vanity and illusion that seems as relevant today as it was when Gogol wrote it in 1835.


Performance Dates:

Jan 22nd / 23rd / 24th / 29th
Feb 3rd / 6th