“I have called you together, gentlemen, to receive a very unpleasant piece of news: there’s a government inspector coming.”

The small-town leadership gets very anxious after receiving a note about the arrival of a government inspector from the capital. And he is coming with secret instructions! The officials’ fear of their misdeeds coming to light is at its peak when out of nowhere a suspicious stranger named Hlestakov appears. A comical web of lies and deceit starts to build up until no one can stop the snowball effect anymore.

Nikolai Gogol is a Russian writer with Ukrainian roots whose works have deeply affected both Russian and Western literature. Although his early stories inspired by Ukrainian folklore received praise and attention as well, it was his satirical play “The Government Inspector” that was his breakthrough in the literary scene. City Theatre has also staged Gogol’s most voluminous work, the novel “Dead Souls”, in the past that also criticizes greed and hypocrisy.