Due to an editing error, this play was incorrectly given three stars in Cherwell Print Edition (Friday 2 May). The star rating below is correct. Cherwell apologise for any confusion this may have caused.
‘Noses are not clean’. The trouble with them, according to Nikolai Gogol’s short story, in a new adaptation from Sam Caird and David Wolf, is that they sometimes fall off government officals’ faces, and begin to lead lives of their own. Definitely tricky things, and the joy of this production is that it quite clearly revels in its own absurdity.
The play is helped along by the quality of Gogol’s original vision, hilarious and clever. Kovalynov the offical in question, flirting with various women before his mysterious de- nosing, compares each to a piece of food; clearly a man whose appetites control his life. Maanas Jain plays Kovalynov with confidence and wit, but it is the use of the cast as a whole which is most striking.
The characters all play more than one role, flitting on and off in a manner that not only manages to clearly delineate each character, but is also astonishingly elegant and suggestive. The rich technique also allows Adam St- Leger Honeybone (pictured), a real delight in this play, to narrate while the characters re- position themselves for the next scene. This multi- faceted use of characters is characteristic of adaptations from the page, but rarely have I seen it used with such panache.
The imagery too is potent. When Kovalynov comes across the deranged Chief of Police, excellently played by Eva Tausig, he is led by a line of sugar, sprinkled across the stage. The Chief is, it transpires, is obsessed with sugar, and watching Tausig stuff sugar- cubes into her bra, cubes which later in the scene come cascading from her clothes, is a good example of the lunatic genius of the piece.
The relationships between the other characters are well- drawn also, with Charlotte Bayley particularly good as a highly expressive and amusing mother who is attracted to one of her daughter’s admirers, and Bayley moves smoothly from shrewish to seductive. Her daughter, Sonya, well played by Jenny Ross, is in turn infatuated with Kovalynov. That the relationships between the characters are so convoluted is no surprise. That this production is so smartly produced, directed and acted, is a wonderful one.
4 stars out of 5
