Gaiety Theatre –  An Inspector Calls – Review – 27 October 2015 – 31 October 2015

We join the Birling family on a night of celebration. Gerald Croft is the guest at the table, but he is soon to be part of the family as he has just announced his engagement to the Birling’s oldest child Sheila. Mr. Birling has just started his after dinner speech when they hear a knock at the door. An inspector has arrived to quiz the inhabitants of the house about their involvement in the suicide of a young woman. While all of them claim their innocence to begin with, the series of questions the Inspector asks start to find flaws in their arguments.

An Inspector Calls is a play by J. B. Priestley first performed in 1945. The play is set in 1913, just before the war in the fictional town of Brumley. It is a work that delves into the social issues of the time, with the depiction of a wealthy industrialist and his family living untroubled while there is widespread poverty on the streets. Their affluence is contrasted against the young woman Eva Smith, who is brought to ruin due to the strength of her convictions and her involvement in the Union movement.

This production was directed by Stephen Daldry, who directed films such as The Reader, The Hours and Billy Elliot. It is a touring production and brings all that you would expect with high production values and an impressive cast. This production is touring Ireland and the UK and is already booked until next May. It is the longest running revival of a play in history, and has been seen by over 3 million people worldwide.

The set of the Birling’s dining room is at half size, making the actors dip their heads to get through doors and making them look like giants when they stand on the balcony. The room is a precariously balanced structure, that stands above the rest of the set.

The depictions of characters like the businessman and his family are fairly obvious ones, with the rhetoric and views of the writer clearly on display, sometimes in an all too obvious a fashion. The story moves in quite a straight forward style until a subtle twist turns the piece on its head and adds an extra edge to what has gone before. This is an impressive production by any standards, with the set, music and style all adding to the experience.

Trailer from 2009 –