The Department of Smelling Pistakes: Brewery Theatre

Monday 15th February 2010

This is a Crackerjack review of The Department of Smelling Pistakes. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.

Crackerjack rating: 8 / 10.

The potential absurdity and tedious pointlessness of a small civil service office are brought to comic life in this performance by Publick Transport’s Angus Barr and Toby W. Davies.

Although set in Russia and clearly inspired by Gogol’s The Government Inspector, the action could take place in any local council office.

The two hopelessly insecure but bumptious characters portrayed in all their ineptitude will be immediately recognisable to anyone who has experienced an audit, assessment or appraisal organised by a faceless bureaucracy.

The only thing in this office that has any point is the pencil that our hapless civil servant lovingly keeps sharpening. The single telephone is both a lifeline and a threat to his lonely, bored existence.

When the inspector arrives the two characters indulge in some inspired verbal sparring as the dominance keeps shifting between the deskbound jobsworth with his wish for advancement and the slightly surreal inquisitor who is in fear of offending his superiors.

The misunderstandings and occasional lapses into sheer lunacy have a Basil Fawty feel about them. The message is “you only have to be at work to be working”. This week’s target is aspiration, or is this week’s aspiration a target? Who knows? Who cares? The directives from on high can change in the space of a moment.

There are occasional anachronisms, but the overall feel of the play is comic insecurity. It should be compulsory viewing for anyone aspiring to work in local government.

Pete Taberner

This is a Crackerjack review of The Department of Smelling Pistakes. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.