Nikolai Gogol’s “The Government Inspector” is one of the funniest comedies ever writtenm and Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation at the Shakespeare Theatre Company skillfully plays up the farcical nature of this 1836 satire of greed, stupidity and corruption in 19th-century Russia. Then director Michael Kahn eases the play even further toward absurdity. The result is an extremely entertaining work about vanity, a classic that has been completely refreshed.

Gogol’s plot begins with a low-level government clerk going to the provinces, where he is mistaken for an important inspector general who is supposed to assess how well the town is run. When the main officials hear of this government inspector, they panic, as they know that the town depends on bribery. They devise a plan to make their city, and themselves, look as impressive as possible.