Set in a fictional North Midlands town, Brumley, in 1912, we have a ‘pillar’ of society family celebrating their daughter’s engagement. Local factory owner Mr Birling (Jeffrey Harmer, who played the role previously in UK and USA tours), his wife (Jackie Morrison), daughter Sheila (Leona Allen), son Eric (George Rowlands, who previously played the role for the 2022–23 UK and Ireland tours) and fiancé Gerald Croft (Tom Chapman) are all in good spirits when the doorbell rings and an inspector Goole (Philip Steward) appears.
One would assume there was great collaboration between the director (Stephen Daldry) and designer (Ian MacNeil), as the set is extremely symbolic of the play's content and themes. The curtain is raised to a large, cobbled outdoor area shrouded in smoke. The Birlings’ house is elevated to one side on a pedestal, rather like a doll’s house, aloof and detached from reality, somewhat like the Birlings, living in a world created by their own fantasies.
Local inhabitants occasional enter standing to one side at the back like some silent jury. When the inspector appears, he remains outside, and the two sides of the house are folded back to reveal the dining room interior. The family each descend to the street for their interrogation, being brought out into the open from their safe haven. Finally, when all are questioned, the house interior collapses, like their life.
While theatrical licence is sometimes used, it seems erroneous to have a red telephone box on set when they did not appear for at least another 14 years, however nicely it dresses the set downstage right under the gas light, historically incorrect. The maid, Edna (Alice Darling graduated 2022) brought drinks, a chair and a carpet why not a candlestick telephone?
J B Priestley had a very full 90 years, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and broadcaster. He is considered one of England’s finest writers and this play is a classic. He is regarded as one of England’s finest writers, and An Inspector Calls is a classic, still relevant today. As he wrote it in a week, there was no theatre free to show it, so it premièred in the Soviet Union in 1945 then in London in 1946, going on to Broadway in 1947. A lifelong socialist, he did not believe in society and the class system: “we are members of one society”.
Since 1992, award-winning theatre, film and television director and producer Stephen Daldry’s seminal production of An Inspector Calls has won a total of 19 major awards, including four Tony Awards and three Olivier Awards and has played to more than 5 million theatregoers worldwide; he has directed six feature films which have all been nominated for major industry awards, quite a full career since 1983. PW Productions has produced some of the most successful productions in British theatre, as well as acting as general manager and production accountant to more than 600 productions in London, throughout the UK, and around the world. It now begins a UK tour of this play.
I saw this play previously and seem to remember the crowd being more mobile, especially near the end, which made the action flow better. I hope that they now receive more than two tickets for their time, experience and contribution to the production. I went again as it is an extremely intriguing production, with insight to the subject, not just a story, but a different visual theatrical experience all too rare at the moment.