Philip Goulding's drama follows the adventures of a knowty scaragrice whose sprawsin' and bullocking gives the frimbles to all the blethering fussocks who fall for his ket. Readers south of Chorley may have difficulty following this, but anyone of a Red Rose persuasion with a knowledge of Russian literature will recognise it as the plot of Gogol's Government Inspector, told in Oldham dialect.
Goulding has made something of a career from translating Gogol into the local lingo. His West Country version of the work appeared in Newbury in 1998, and now Coliseum director Kevin Shaw has commissioned him to revoice it with a Lancashire burr.
Goulding's version is set in the 1860s, a time when Oldham's population had begun to explode, and the bureaucratic mania for official inspections of everything from schools to sanitation was at its peak. An attendant culture of backhanders and string-pulling prevailed, and Goulding presents a picture of a booming society riddled with petty fiefdoms and incipient corruption.
The big, bluff presence of Eric Potts dominates as the uncouth industrialist Wyndham Pitts, who stands accused of besmirching the office of "murr". Though it takes a little while to apprehend what a murr might be, his red regalia and golden chain of office provide a clue.
Tim Treslove gives a perky performance as Petty, the clerk mistaken for the government official. Alison Heffernan's crazily listing set presents a woozy caricature of Oldham's porticoed town hall, as if the town is drunk with abuses of power. Kevin Shaw's production is a fine tribute to Gogol that will appeal to anyone, once you've acclimatised to the accent and got your burrings.
Until June 14. Box office: 0161-624 2829.
