Sir, – Having attended the Abbey Theatre production of The Government Inspectorby Nikolai Gogol "in a new version" by Roddy Doyle, I am afraid I cannot agree with John Murray (December 3rd).
Whilst I appreciate his (and Nabokov’s) reservations as to what constitutes a “good translation”, I cannot accept that nothing but a “literal translation” (not necessarily a tautology) applies when it comes to translating a play for theatre (it might be true if it were a legal text).
The Roddy Doyle “version” of the play was adapted wonderfully, sending up Irish society with a dark and cutting satire and with extremely funny references to the most recent political events in this country.
It is a production that Roddy Doyle and director Jimmy Fay can be truly proud of and I think Gogol and Nabokov would approve of it if they were alive to see it staged. – Yours, etc,