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written by
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Nikolai Gogol
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original translation by
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Adrian Mitchell
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directed by
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Katie Posner
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produced by
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Mark Hartley
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jam theatre artistic director
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Jo Noel-Hartley
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cast
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David Chittenden
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Ozzie Gardner
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Kim Joyce
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Andrea Newland
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Harry Thompson
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Nikolai Gogol (Writer)
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Gogol was born in Sorochintsi of Poltava Guberniya (now Ukraine) to the family of some nobility. Some of his ancestors associated themselves with Polish Szlachta (probably not by ethnicity but culturally, due to the continued polonization of Ruthenian upper class) and his grandfather Afanasiy Gogol wrote in census papers that "his ancestors, of the family-name Gogol, are of the Polish nation". However, his great-grandfather, Jan Gogol, after studying in Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, a deeply Ukrainian, or Ruthenian, and Orthodox Christian educational institution, moved to the Muscovy leaning Left-bank Ukraine (Malorossia) and settled in Poltava region, originating the Gogol-Janovsky family line. Gogol himself did not use the second part of his name considering it an "artificial Polish addition". Gogol's father died when the boy was 15 years old. The deep religiosity of his mother has likely influenced Gogol's world view as well as the time he spent in the mixed surroundings of local small-time nobility and everyday village life.
He moved to Saint Petersburg in 1828. In 1831, he met Aleksandr Pushkin, who supported him as a writer and became his friend. He later taught history at Saint Petersburg University from 1834 to 1835. He went on to write a number of short stories set in Saint Petersburg, including "Nevsky Prospekt", the Diary of a Madman, "The Overcoat", and "The Nose" (which was later turned into an opera by Dmitri Shostakovich). Although the first volume of his Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka was his first true success, he fell into obscurity again after the publication of his Arabesques.
It was his farce The Inspector General, produced in 1836, which once again drew him to the public attention as a writer. Its satirical tone, which it shares with much of his other work, caused some controversy, and Gogol fled to Rome.
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Adrian Mitchell (Translator)
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biography coming soon
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Katie Posner (Director)
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Katie Posner is an experienced practitioner and educator. She is a trained teacher (PGCE) having course lead acting and A level courses at Amersham & Wycombe College. Katie is very much in demand and now works as a freelance actor/director.
Directing credits include: Road by Jim Cartwright, Government Inspector by Nickolai Gogol, Cloud Nine by Caryll Churchill, Head Rot Holiday by Sarah Daniels, Little Shop of Horrors, Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox and more recently the BFG for Jam Theatre at The Aylesbury Civic Centre as part of a Roald Dahl festival.
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Mark Hartley (Producer & Production Designer)
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biography coming soon
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Jo Noel-Hartley (Executive Producer, Artistic Director)
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biography coming soon
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related links:
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