Get Doon for Gogol at the Young Vic

FIFA 2001 gave me unrealistic expectations in life. Never before had I realized that you could transfer Thierry Henry, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Fernando Hierro (to name but a few) to Leeds United and create a star-studded, world beating super team. In truth in reality, you couldn’t, but through the wonders of modern technology, beautiful things were possible.

The Young Vic’s new re-working of the Nicolai Gogol’s Government Inspector brings to together a cast of similar traits. Julian Barratt of Mighty Boosh fame leads the cast that includes Smack the Pony’s Doon Mackichan and Fergus Craig, off, err, Star Stories. Ok, so maybe it’s not quite a Leeds team of 01-02, but the strength of this production came in the cast.

The play has been brilliantly reworked, adding touches that tailor the humour to an English audience and give little bursts of the kind of off-beat comedy that both Mackichan and Barratt are so known for (and Gogol not so much.) Combining 1830s Russian with touches of 1940s horror films, the opening minutes seem far from the play’s origins, but give the piece a kookiness that will entertain the faithful and intrigue the sceptics.

Barratt appears not to play the role of the Mayor, but rather let Howard Moon do it, bringing a slightly awkward uneasiness to his presence on stage. Combine this with a wardrobe camp costumes and the Young Vic’s usual frugal ingenuity in set construction, and at times, the production has slight touches of panto. Polished is not a word that sprang to mind.

But each of the actors themselves, each member of the cast possessed a star, winning quality. Their comic air and the natural humour tended to prevail in the face of comedy’s historical cornerstone, delivery. Despite Barratt’s big-billing, Mackichan does steal the show a little. Her competition with her own daughter (played with ample squeakiness by Lou Brearley) to woo the ‘Government Inspector’ makes for a rip-roaring display of comedic crowd-control. The cherry on the cake comes in the form of Dr. Gibner, whose infrequent additions in German provide one of the funniest elements of the production.

The piece is novel no doubt, but weighs too much on the shoulders of Barratt, who in truth lacks the gravity and presence to carry the piece. I like my Boosh as much as the next man, but I fear the Government Inspector preaches a fable of the TV/theatre divide. Sometimes it’s just best to keep the stars in the places they shine, in reality it never works like it does on FIFA.

Young Vic until 9th July