Review- An Inspector Calls
March 31, 2009
Date Reviewed: 31st March 2009
Venue: Theatre Royal, Newcastle
Opening with children playing in 1945 and kicking a radio in to life, the curtain rises to reveal a small house on stilts, breaking out from a rain soaked cobbled street below. Inside are a family gathered for a celebration and though the windows we can see them at the dining table, although they are far bigger than the room and we catch just glimpses of them as they pass the windows, a head here and an arm there. Finally the walls of the house burst open and transport us to 1912 and in to the world of The Inspector Calls.
But the children in the street continue to watch the action of the Birling family as the characters spill out from the small house, their lives about to change forever.
A man arrives and watches the proceedings before introducing himself as Inspector Goole (Louis Hilyer) who needs to ask Mr Birling (understudy Jeremy Spriggs) a few questions regarding the death of a young girl. It appears she has taken her own life but the Inspector knows that Mr Birling had sacked her previously and tries to find out the truth.
He questions each of the characters in turn, as it seems they all knew the girl in some way and were implicated in her downfall by various means. As skeletons come rolling out the cupboards the family goes in to freefall, none more so than Sybil Birling, brilliantly played by Sandra Duncan, who gives the withering looks only a mother can to her children.
With the family in pieces even their very home collapses around them, to great effect.
As they try to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives they begin to realise that the whole business could be a terrible joke that they have unwittingly walked in to, that is, until the phone rings.
This production directed by Stephen Daldry has justifiably won numerous awards since it was first produced in 1992 at the National Theatre and Ian MacNeils set design remains as impressive and innovative as it did seventeen years ago. This is an imaginative piece of theatre that brings to life a JB Priestley play which until this revival had been set to be performed by amateur groups for evermore.
It is impossible to imagine that anyone can every better this production which is still playing to packed audiences around the world.
John Dixon
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