Don’t blame the mirror if your face is askew.

The bureaucrats in a remote provincial town are panicking. Word has gone round that a bigwig government inspector is heading their way. And things are far from ideal: for a start, the hospital’s hopeless, the post office has gone to pot, and the streets are filthy. The Mayor and the Judge are keen to brush their own indiscretions under the nearest carpet. So when they discover the inspector is already staying at the inn, incognito, the whole town lavishes flattering attention on him. This suits ‘the inspector’ just fine, since in reality he’s a lowly and broke government pen-pusher, nursing extravagant fantasies of fame and fortune…

Gogol’s brilliantly inventive 19th century satire of skulduggery, mistaken identity and human absurdity spirals into dizzying levels of comic hysteria in Phil Porter’s sparkling new version. Actor and comedian Tom Rosenthal (Friday Night Dinner, Plebs,…