Pitlochry Festival Theatre, in repertory until October 2004

THE MULTITALENTED John Byrne has had two translations staged in Scotland in quick succession. Earlier this year Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum presented his version of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, retitled Uncle Varick. Now Pitlochry has given his ribald treatment of Gogol’s The Government Inspector its first Scottish airing since its London debut in 1997.

Classics they might be, but you wouldn’t normally link these two plays: one, an elegiac drama of lost opportunity, the other, a ribald comedy of provincial corruption. Seeing them close together, however, especially from Byrne’s idiosyncratic and very funny perspective, reveals what a lot they have in common.

Byrne doesn’t only translate the language of these plays, but also relocates them to rural Scotland. True, in The Government Inspector the characters say they’re in Russia, but all the clues suggest otherwise. They wear kilts, listen to Scottish traditional music and talk in a ripe demotic that has Byrne’s ear for language all over it. We are in no doubt that Khlestakov, the man they mistake for a government inspector, is from the high-status city of London even though his talk is of St Petersburg.

Byrne made this relocation explicit in Uncle Varick by formally setting the play in north-east Scotland, but the effect was much the same. Where Chekhov’s professor has all the kudos and arrogance associated with the big city, so Khlestakov finds the local population are willingly subservient simply because of his fashionable clothes and, in Steven McNicoll’s buoyant performance, his poncy Old Etonian accent. He’s more of a fraud than Chekhov’s professor, but demonstrates equally how a small nation so readily kowtows to authority.

In truth, all the characters are charlatans and the only thing the bumptious Khlestakov has over the others is the quickness of mind to exploit them when he gets the chance. What Byrne brings to Gogol’s comedy of confusion, in other words, is a satire of the Scottish cultural cringe, showing – in the funniest way possible – how low self-esteem can have catastrophic consequences.

Tony Cownie’s production gets maximum value from the Pitlochry ensemble, gathering 14 actors on stage for a well-paced romp. There’s nothing startling about it, but it understands the value of pantomime brashness and makes for a very entertaining evening.

© Mark Fisher, 2004

Related Links:

Pitlochry Theatre website