THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED AND WINNERS HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED

This year’s Christmas show at the Abbey is The Government Inspector, Nikolai Gogol’s satirical comedy on local government, brown envelopes and bribes. Roddy Doyle has adapted it for the National Theatre, but these kind of themes hardly need much translation.

The language, though, is a different animal, and in an excellent article in tomorrow’s Irish Times Weekend Review, Doyle explains the painstaking process of adapting the play without learning Russian. The Abbey has also commissioned Martyn Turner to illustrate the play’s programme, so with his cut-out-and-keep pictures, you can build your own bureaucracy without stuffing a single envelope or slipping any deft backhanders.

If you can’t wait until then, here’s an interview with Roddy Doyle, where he discusses his involvement in the production.

We have two pairs of tickets for the play for Tuesday night’s performance (November 29th). To be in with a chance to win, just leave a comment below or email lmackin@irishtimes.com, and we will select two at random. The competition closes at 5pm this evening. All brown envelopes gratefully received. Ahem.

Ah now that money was just resting in my account. Marion O’Dwyer, Don Wycherley and Liz Fitzgibbon in The Government Inspector