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ABOUT THE INSPECTOR GENERAL: This play is Nikolai Gogol's 19th century tale of "The Emperor's New Clothes". A young innocent, Khlestakov, is mistaken for a visiting dignitary by the city's social climbers. A desperate craziness, a maneuvering for social position well known through the ages, ensues. Before formal rehearsals began, we workshopped the play. This period enabled us to discover the kind of physical comedy needed to best portray a frenetic world of 21st century ass-kissing. In this regard, the play was not much different than a Restoration comedy or an 18th century comedy of manners, like Sheridan's "School for Scandal". As a starting point, all of the contorted images of corporate executives from Robert Longo's "Men in the Cities" paintings were not only studied, but also absorbed into the actor's bodies. They owned these images. The acting style created for this play became a dynamic, comedic expression of need – specifically, the need to please – taken to its grotesque, self-sublimating extreme. |