The Government Inspector at Chichester Festival Theatre

SussexWorld

Phil Porter is delighted to report he passed the first-day-of-rehearsals test with flying colours – that nerve-racking moment when you put your script in front of the entire cast for the read-through.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at 16's Papers. Really lovely,

00:07really exciting to speak to Phil Porter. Now, you've adapted the opening play in the main

00:12house stage for the 2025 Chichester Festival Theatre season for Government Inspector. You

00:18are going to give us a huge laugh on you. It sounds a great way to start the summer.

00:22That's certainly the hope, yeah. I think it's going to be very funny. One of the things

00:26that I love about writing comedy and that I hate about writing comedy is you never quite

00:30know. But I think we're on pretty sure ground here with one of the great classics of theatre

00:38comedy history.

00:39Yeah, and where on earth did you start? You were given, as you say, a blank translation

00:45and then you turned that into this?

00:48Yes. So, yes, I was sent a literal translation by a linguist who translated it from the Russian

00:56but not done anything to sort of try and make it any more interesting. And then I

01:00have revivified it. So I've reduced the length of it quite considerably because the original

01:07Go-Go version is very long. And I guess I've tried to make the comedy of it as accessible

01:13as possible without kind of bludgeoning all of the nuance out of it, I guess was part

01:18of my job.

01:19And you were saying that you had a very gratifying experience on the first set of rehearsals

01:22when everyone sat around the table and found your jokes funny.

01:25I did. Thank goodness. Yeah. I mean, that is the most nervous part of the whole process

01:30for a playwright, really, the first day of rehearsals, especially with a comedy where

01:34everybody sits around. Probably we have a cast of 18, so it would have been all of those

01:38guys and the directors and assistants and the stage managers. And yes, we all had a

01:43read through. Thankfully, it was agreed that I had done my job and made people laugh. And

01:49yeah, and we've been rehearsing now for one and a half weeks. And yeah, so far, it's

01:55going great. Everyone's having a great time and we're fine.

01:58It's such a clever, such appealing story, isn't it? Which doesn't reflect that well

02:03on us as people generally, does it? But as you say, there is affection in the portraits

02:07of these pretty rotten people, corrupt people.

02:10Yeah, it strikes an amazing kind of balance between being very warm about humanity and

02:16also very, very critical of our vices and flaws, particularly the mayor, who's the

02:22character who begins the show and has the most to lose, who's a terrible person. And

02:26yet, as I was just saying to you, I sort of somehow come away feeling almost sorry for

02:31him. Almost. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. But yeah, almost.

02:36Well, it sounds a fantastic way to start the summer. It opens Friday, April the 25th, runs

02:42until Saturday, May the 24th. The Governor Spectre, adapted by Phil. Lovely to speak

02:48to you. Thank you.

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