Ron's rages are sincere and — according to his wife — healthily cathartic. But can these splenetic outbursts loosen the grip of capitalism at its most monstrous?
The Government Inspector
Theatre Royal Stratford East/Touring
London E15
5/5
A GODFORSAKEN township in rural Russia is in a paroxysm of hysterics. A contagious rumour has spread that a government inspector is about to descend upon it.
Permeated with corruption, nepotism and brutality the ruling elite, fearing exposure, desperately prepare. Paranoia heightens on the news of a stranger checking into a drab local hotel, sparking what becomes one of the most memorable stage farces ever.
GEORGE FOGARTY is dazzled by a breathtakingly skillful puppet version of Shakespeare’s greatest love poem
GORDON PARSONS salutes the apt return of Brecht’s vaudevillian cartoon drama that retains the vitality of the boxing or the circus ring
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship
MAYER WAKEFIELD recommends a musical ‘love letter’ to black power activists of the 1970s


