The Government Inspector

The Government Inspector, known in Russian as Revizor, is a satirical comedy by the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol, first performed on 1 May 1836 at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. Set in a corrupt provincial Russian town whose officials are thrown into panic by word that an incognito government inspector is coming to investigate them, the play follows their mistaken identification of Ivan Khlestakov, a penniless and idle minor civil servant passing through, as the feared inspector; Khlestakov, quickly realizing their error works in his favor, accepts bribes and flatters his way through the town's hospitality before departing, and the officials' error is exposed only after an intercepted letter reveals the truth, immediately followed by news that the real inspector has just arrived. Gogol built the play as a broad satire of greed, stupidity and the routine corruption of Russian provincial administration, famously having Khlestakov's servant break the fourth wall to tell the audience, in effect, that they are laughing at themselves. The play's abrupt, wordless final tableau, in which the assembled officials freeze on hearing of the real inspector's arrival, has remained one of the most celebrated closing images in Russian theater, and the play itself is considered one of the essential works of Russian dramatic satire.