Photo Flash: First Look at THE INSPECTOR GENERAL at Throughline Theatre

Throughline Theatre Company closes ninth season with The Inspector General. The show opened August 10 at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre in downtown Pittsburgh. Absurdist comedy continues season's theme, "Make 'Em Laugh".

A revizor approaches! The Governor of a Russian town, and his rogue's gallery of town officials, quake at the news that a government inspector will be arriving to investigate their activities, all while moving about incognito. When word comes that a strange visitor from St. Petersburg has been staying at the local inn for nearly two weeks, a powder keg of bureaucratic panic erupts, and the town's notables clamor and jockey in their attempts to bribe their way to renewed security.

Nikolai Gogol's play was first published in 1836, the result of an anecdote elicited from Alexander Pushkin regarding "some subject [...] authentically Russian." In producing a new version of the play in 1926, Vsevolod Meyerhold noted, "What is most amazing about [it] is that although it contains all elements of... plays written before it, although it was constructed according to various established dramatic premises, there can be no doubt - at least for me - that far from being the culmination of a tradition, it is the start of a new one." Connor McCanlus directs Throughline's production of the play, which will feature Everett Lowe, Hazel Leroy, Chelsea Bartel, Daniel Pivovar, Tyler Kendrick, Rachelmae Pulliam, Samwise Riley, Michael McBurney, Val Williams, Rebekah Hukill, Jalina McClarin, and Greg Tomasino.

The Inspector General opens Friday, August 10 and runs through Saturday, August 18. Thursday and Friday performances start at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, August 18 performances at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $20.00 general admission or $15.00 for students, artists, and seniors. Tickets are available at the door or online at throughline.showclix.com.

Photo Credit: Rick Moore