The Government Inspector

Nikolai Gogol’s comedy The Government Inspector premiered at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in 1836. In 1920, Isaac Rabinovich designed the sets and costumes designs for a a production planned by director Alexei Diky at the Moscow Theatre of Drama, which was never staged. In one of the most exciting and innovative movements in Russian art, Nikolai Baskakov (director of the Leningrad House of Printing) brought together the members of Pavel Filonov’s Masters of Analytical Art with the leading avant-garde director, Igor Terentiev, in an experimental production of The Government Inspector. Although many artists worked on the sets and costumes, including A. Landsberg, Nikolai Yevgrafov, Rebecca Leviton and Mikhail Tsybasov, the most important contribution was made by the more experienced Andrei Sashin. The premiere of The Government Inspector was held on 9 April 1927 at the new premises of the House of Printing Theatre, accompanied by the first ever public exhibition of the works of the Masters of Analytical Art, which ran from 17 April to 17 May. Although the director discarded all the set designs and rejected or simplified several costume designs, the show caused a scandal and was shut down after only a month. It was revived in February 1928 in more traditional sets and costumes.