Tom Rosenthal is in The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol, a new adaptation by Phil Porter, at Chichester Festival Theatre from Fri 25 Apr – Sat 24 May
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00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.
00:06Huge pleasure to speak to Tom Rosenthal.
00:08Tom, you are making your Chichester Festival Theatre debut in the opening play of the 2025 season, The Government Inspector.
00:16The script attracted you just because it was so funny, but also attracted you because, slightly worryingly,
00:22perhaps you found elements of yourself in this character you are playing, did you not?
00:26Yeah, I'm not going to go into that, because this is not a therapy session.
00:30But yes, there is certainly an overlap with some of Velestikov's naughty habits.
00:38But you have to come to the play and try and work out which ones they are.
00:42Absolutely. But you said that you just found it so funny when you started reading it.
00:48Yeah, I mean, it's sort of known as one of the best comedy plays of all time.
00:52And Bill's translation, it's got great jokes.
00:57And yeah, the first act I'm not even in, so I was cracking up at the bits where, you know, I didn't have to do anything.
01:02And it's, I mean, hey, I'm not going to tell you to laugh.
01:07It's the audience's job to find out if it's funny or not.
01:09But from rehearsals and from everything that the very talented cast are doing, you know, we are definitely,
01:16we're laughing, even if the audience isn't.
01:19Oh, I'm sure they will be before too long.
01:21But curious, this is your first time on the stage for possibly eight years, something like that?
01:28It's my first time doing a play.
01:29Yeah, I mean, I've been getting about doing stand-up comedy,
01:31but it's a bit different doing it with a bunch of other people in costumes.
01:36And yeah, I mean, it's just a real privilege.
01:38It's a fantastic lifestyle, you know, I mean, I used to do school plays for fun.
01:44And, you know, I get paid a little bit of money to do it, you know,
01:47so there's nothing to complain about, really.
01:49And in between you've been doing the stand-up, you're saying you'll be returning to stand-up later this year
01:53with a really appealing-sounding stand-up show, which is going to look back at Friday Night Dinner, isn't it?
01:59Well, yeah, I mean, yes, it's, it definitely does that in part, yeah.
02:04But it's sort of, it's dealing with a sort of variety of things that people have called me,
02:11and obviously the main thing people have called me is Johnny Goodman from Friday Night Dinner, really.
02:14So, yeah, I think it's...
02:17That's what those things have been called, aren't they?
02:18Definitely! What about Piss Face? What about that?
02:23When you look back on it now, why is it a show that's so dear to so many people, do you think?
02:28I think Friday Night Dinner, it was a show that kids could watch with their parents without getting too embarrassed, you know.
02:43It was a recognisable family sort of classic farce, but it was just weird enough that it made it specific.
02:49And, yeah, I think it was a show with incredible writing and very, very talented actors and just privileged to be a part of it.
03:00What does it say about the show that, as you were saying, it really took off in the pandemic, didn't it, in terms of popularity, becoming a cult?
03:07Why did that happen then, do you think?
03:10Well, I just think that in times of darkness, people look to comedy for comfort, really.
03:16Which is what's very interesting about this play, because it's not comfortable.
03:20Like, it's not a classic farce, even though it does have a farcical structure.
03:26It's very interesting.
03:27Like, Gogol was sort of trying to ask questions of society and trying to kind of make people reflect on their role within their society and their society as a whole, the corruption they're in.
03:40And he does that with a device of sort of silliness.
03:43So it doesn't have a nice comedy thing where it all just ties up at the end.
03:48Like, it's actually quite unsettling and weird.
03:50And that's why it's, I think it's why it's lasted so long, because it really is quite unique, as well as being really funny.
03:58I mean, it takes a talent to be really funny.
04:00It takes a talent to sort of unsettle and disquiet an audience.
04:03But to have both in one play, I mean, it's, it is really remarkable.
04:08And to be comedy with a purpose, isn't it, of course?
04:11Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:14I mean, he wanted it to have a purpose.
04:16And he kind of went mad afterwards because it didn't quite achieve the purpose under his specific sort of directives.
04:24The ways in which it was received, even though it was received amazingly well and made loads of money, he wasn't happy with.
04:31And it's a fascinating story of, he's quite sort of loyal to the Tsar, but he made this play that was very critical of the government, in his mind, trying to make things better.
04:42But everyone else just thought he was taking the piss out of the Tsar.
04:45And yes, I think it's a sort of a classic tale of an artist obsessing too much over the response of his thing and having a kind of highfalutin moral purpose behind something when actually people have just enjoyed it as a sort of fun night out.
05:03Which I definitely recognise myself in that kind of being too pretentious over my comedy.
05:08I can, I can, I can relate.
05:11It sounds fantastic.
05:13It sounds a wonderful prospect to start the season.
05:15Get yourself on down.
05:17Pardon?
05:19I just said, get yourself on down.
05:21Watching the Zoom.
05:22Definitely.
05:22Come and see this goatee in the flesh.
05:24We will be there.
05:26Really, really lovely to meet you and to speak to you.
05:29And good luck with everything.
05:30See you guys, Bill.