THE GOVERNMENT AGENT Comes to the 2024 Fertile Ground Festival This April

Adam Harrell’s new play The Government Agent, a contemporary adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s 19th Century Russian farce The Inspector General, is set to have its first public performance at this year’s Fertile Ground Festival of New Works in Portland, OR (April 12-21). In Harrell’s play, small-town American Mayor Ted Wyatt’s criminal reign is thrown into peril when a suspected government agent stops by to visit. Ted, his family, and his corrupt city council members pull out all the stops to impress the agent and preserve the status quo while trying to line their own pockets along the way. 

Adapting the Gogol classic and updating it for modern times has been a passion for playwright Adam Harrell for most of his career, and he is thrilled to finally make it a reality. “I fell in love with this play in college, because of its timeless message of corruption and cult mentalities that remains urgent even centuries later,” Harrell said. “The adaptation was long overdue but I feel the timing couldn’t be better to have a go at some of the political absurdities that have gripped the nation in recent years.” 

The Fertile Ground production of The Government Agent marks the end of a year-long development phase and will be the first time the play is presented for a public audience, in a staged reading format directed by the playwright. Adam Harrell is a Portland, OR based writer. His plays have been produced across the country from New York to Seattle, and his published works are available through OAPD. He is the winner of the Northwest Playwright’s Alliance New Play Award (WA), Three Leaches New Play Competition (CO), and his play Birds of Paradise was a runner-up for the Georgia Arts & Letters Prize. Find out more on his website.

The Fertile Ground Festival is a citywide festival of new works from Portland artists. The Government Agent is featured as part of the “Festival Within the Festival” hosted by PDX Playwrights, a local co-producing network of theatre makers. It will have two exclusive performances, Wednesday April 17 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday April 20 at 2:30 p.m. at the Chapel Theatre, 4107 SE Harrison St, Milwauke, OR 97222. 

Release some election-year tension and laugh in the face of corruption with this energetic farce about a misguided small-town Mayor navigating the extremities of American paranoia. Be among the first to see a new adaptation of the Gogol classic re-imagined for a contemporary Western audience. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased via Wannago, or at the box office. 

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