An Inspector Calls

Synopsis

When Inspector Goole calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family investigating the suicide of a poor young local woman his startling revelations shatter the very foundation of their lives. As the Inspector asks insinuating questions it becomes clear that they all bear guilt for the destruction of the woman they have variously exploited for cheap labour, cheap sex and worse - And then the plot thickens. Written at the end of the second World War and set before the first, An Inspector Calls is a brilliantly compelling and haunting thriller.

Our Review:

28 September 2001

For nearly six years until April 2001, Stephen Daldry's multi award-winning production of JB Priestley's An Inspector Calls stood proud at the Garrick on Charing Cross Road as one of the West End's stalwarts. After a brief spell in mothballs, it has returned, now playing at the smaller Playhouse Theatre. Fans of this long-runner will be pleased to know that, despite its time out of the limelight, the Inspector is every bit as moody and bleak as ever.

Set in the imaginary pre-World War I Yorkshire industrial town of Brumley, the story revolves around a well-to-do family, the Birlings, who are all rather too happy to abdicate responsibility for their actions. It all starts going wrong for the Birlings on the night their daughter (Emma Gregory) becomes engaged to Gerald Croft (Owen Oakeshott), heir to the town's great industrial empire.

The family's celebrations are rudely interrupted when the eponymous inspector turns up to ask some probing questions abou...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 29 January 2002:

Understudies are marvelous!...

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