Gogol's absurdist vision lives on

10 April 2012

In 1842 Gogol had an insane vision of a charisma-free bureaucrat who discovered that a new overcoat more than made up for his lack of personality.

It caused a frisson in literary salons because of his ground-breaking use of words as building blocks for this disconcertingly absurd and anti-bureaucratic world.

Now, more than 150 years later, the Bulgarian company Credo Theatre has taken similar liberties with its theatrical language to bring his spirit back.

Imagine, if you will, a tall, thin man with false eyebrows and a moustache that make him look like a cross between Groucho Marx and a walrus. His companion in absurdity is equally blessed in the moustache and eyebrow department, but this moustache is of such horizontal rigidity that it could double as a kebab stick.

Watching their clowning is like watching a power relationship unfold between two children at play. Through deliberate use of the child's emotional register, they slip more easily into a world of fantasy and game playing which informs their quirky attempts to recreate Gogol's St Petersburg through puppetry.

Nabokov made the observation that: "After reading Gogol, one's eyes may become gogolised and one is apt to see bits of his world in the most unexpected places." These two actors, Nina Dimitrova and Vassil Vassilev-Zuek, are equally likely to make you goggle-eyed at their use of bits of rag, cardboard and something that looks like a potato to suggest the sorrows of a man who, having sacrificed much to pay for his magnificent overcoat, has it stolen. The idea is that they have been arrested for trouble making on the streets of St Petersburg, and are in the courtroom where they explain to us - as members of the jury - how they have encountered the bureaucrat's ghost.

In this world a potato cries and gurgles like a baby, a rigid cross flies off a coffin and becomes a ghost, and two cloth bags and a stick transform themselves into a Cossack dancing tailor.

There are instances when the clowning seems to lose direction, and the need for a clearer narrative shines through. This should not override the fact that this is an often inspired reinterpretation of Gogol's story, and as he lies in his grave he should be content - with his taste for absurdity - that his literary talent can be translated so effectively into several bits of junk and a root vegetable.

? Until 1 July. Box office 020 7683 8891.

The Overcoat

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