Gogol and Vaudeville

Both the production of The Government Inspector and its reception by the illustrious first-night audience at the Aleksandrinsky Theatre in April 1836 appalled Gogol. His friend Annenkov decribed the occasion in his literary reminiscences: By the end of the first act perplexity was writ on every face … as though no one knew what he should make of the picture that had just been presented. This perplexity increased with every act.1