The Octagon in Bolton will open its new 2013–2014 season with An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley, directed by David Thacker.
It remains Priestley's most famous work and has been produced on stage, radio, television and in film numerous times since it was first performed—in the Soviet Union—in 1945 and in the UK in 1946.
Thacker has deliberately paired it with the second production of the season, Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill. The actors who play the Birling family members have been through-cast to play the Tyrone family in Long Day... a play that follows similar themes despite obvious differences in terms of geography and setting.
The cast of Inspector Calls includes David Prosho, who will be making his Octagon Theatre debut, in the role of the enigmatic Inspector Goole. He should feel at home, having recently starred in ITV’s Scott & Bailey as Detective Constable Ian Mitchell, alongside Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp.