Perse actors show satirical side with The Government Inspector

Perse Year 11 actors showed off their comedy skills with their production of satirical play The Government Inspector.

Nineteenth century writer Nikolai Gogol’s work centres around Khlestakov, who the corrupt officials of a small Russian town believe is a government inspector who has been sent to investigate them.

However, in this comedy of errors, Khlestakov does not realise for some time he has been mistaken for someone else and takes advantage of the Mayor and his cronies’ deference.

Perse English teachers Kathryn Salmond and Hannah Flowers, who co-directed the production, chose The Government Inspector believing it would provide an entertaining challenge to the cast.

Miss Salmond said: “There was quite a good mix of girls and boys and we knew a lot of them had played really good comedy characters before, so we thought we’d try a comedy.

“Chris Green (Director of English & Drama) and George Smith (drama teacher) both suggested looking at The Government Inspector. Miss Flowers and I both enjoyed it and thought it would work really well.”

Miss Salmond felt the actors rose to the task exceptionally well to stage two performances enjoyed by audiences in the Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre.

She said: “We were really impressed with them because there were so many lines to learn, especially for the pupils who played the Mayor and Khlestakov.”

“There were also the characters of Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, who not only have quite a few lines, but often have to finish each other’s sentences.

“We just wanted to make everyone feel confident enough to really commit to these over-the-top characters.

“The Year 11 play is always a nice one for the pupils to work on because it’s just their year group and generally a production that’s a bit more mature.

“We’ve had a lot of positive comments from people who came to see the show saying they found it really funny.”