Event

Theater Anonymous presents "The Government Inspector"

"The Government Inspector" by Nikolai Gogol is considered by many Russia's greatest comedy creation. The corrupt officials of a small Russian town, headed by the Mayor, react with terror to the news that an incognito inspector will soon be arriving in their town to investigate them. The flurry of activity to cover up their considerable misdeeds is interrupted by the report that a suspicious person has arrived two weeks previously from Saint Petersburg and is staying at the inn.

The premise of Theater Anonymous is simple. Nobody knows the cast, not even the cast. Approximately 30 actors will be selected through an invitation process (similar to the 14/48 festival), and each will rehearse one-on-one with the director, never meeting their fellow actors. Actors must take an oath of secrecy and are allowed to tell only one other person on earth that they are participating. Actors enter the theater in street clothes, sit with the audience until their first line, and deliver it from the audience before joining the rest of the cast onstage.

"[B]ecause everyone was experiencing the show for the first time, the feeling in the audience was unusually engagedeven complicit, clapping as well-known Seattle actors popped out of their chairs and onto the stage. Every entrance was An Event, and the standing ovation at the end of the show was entirely deserved." Brendan Kiley, The Stranger

Produced by One World Theatre and Three Card Monty, with partnership support from Balagan Theater and licensed from The Anonymous Theatre Company. www.1448fest.com/anonymous