The Inspector General

The New Riga Theatre has produced a really excellent comic performance, which embodies the words of the classic “laughing, they happily waved farewell to the past”. It is evident, that this theatre event will become a popular hit as well as the subject for reflections on theatre and the perspective of the development of the aesthetic text, not only in Latvia, but also in European and world context.

Normunds Naumanis, Diena

Small heads on big bodies – like hens. This mutant – a poor little creature – was born from a favourable social milieu in which a primitive instinct of survival has mixed with permanent fear. Speaking theatre language – a tragicomic, unlucky being. (...) We can foretell the direction of Alvis Hermanis and the acting of some of his actors their immortal place in the reading books of theatre history, where the master of hyperbole – Vsevolod Meyerchold, will welcome them.

Liliya Dzene, Diena

When creating the aesthetic expression of the production, the director was inspired by the social reality of the snack bars in the sixties and seventies of the 20^th century – with their smell of burnt fried onion, dirty toilets and, certainly, people – good-hearted, narrow-minded fatties. Their strong ambition to create their own tutors and lords arouses rather sympathy than hatred.

Valda Chakare, Diena

The setting of the story – a canteen in a little provincial Soviet town. (...) The period – the seventies, what we can guess from the costumes and the strongly obtrusive tunes of the “Seventeen Standstills in Spring“. All the rest is pure Gogol – the characters, the text. All the actors play masterly, they are relieved, and enjoy their roles. While laughing, you start to understand – this is not a satire, it is poetry. For example, Alvis Hermanis – laughing, without any anger, even tenderly he makes farewell to the past, indulging in the Gogol’s stylistic excellence.

Katerina Borsheva, Diena