REVIEW: An Inspector Calls

© Mark Douet

As people across the country prepare to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day along comes a powerful and pertinent play that was first performed in 1945.

An Inspector Calls is now playing at The Alexandra Theatre.

Playwright J. B. Priestley was considered a ‘dangerous leftie’ by Winston Churchill and his Conservative government so when the time came for An Inspector Calls to be unveiled in London’s West End there was no place for the play to be performed. This forced Priestley’s new drama to premiere in Moscow in 1945 where it received rapturous standing ovations from theatregoers.

The exploitation of loyal workers by callous and heartless bosses, including the betrayal of disingenuous men who cast aside women in the blinking of any eye, are matters that resonated with audiences of the day. These topics still haunt the human race in 2025.

The mistreatment of women in a patriarchal society is a potent issue that is too often brushed under the carpet but Priestley dares to lay it right out in the open. His characters are forced to have that debate at their dinner table while the audience eavesdrops with the realisation that the issues being discussed are still ongoing and remain unresolved in the world outside the theatre despite the passing of 80 years. Change is long overdue.

At a time when our world is day-by-day slipping into a terrifying quagmire of misinformation, suspicion, Fascism polished up and marketed as patriotism, intolerance and division becoming ever more normalised, this play by Priestley acts as a stark warning to put the brakes on all the hate and heal the fractures that are beginning to tear apart communities as the divide between the have and have nots accelerates at an alarming speed, and those who peddle supremacist ideologies swiftly swoop in to capitalise on the rifts.

Rick Fisher's startling lighting designs for this show accentuate the horror and corruption that festers beneath the polite veneer of the rich factory owners. When the inspector first appears, standing under a streetlamp and dressed in a trench coat and trilby hat, and carrying a briefcase, his ominous shadow creeps and slithers across the exterior wall of the house occupied by the wealthy family. The scene could almost be a recreation of Father Merrin's arrival at Regan's house in The Exorcist where the mission is to rid the evil and corruption that plagues the soul of innocence.

Priestley’s story deals with a wealthy and privileged family rising rapidly up the social ladder. They are celebrating and toasting their successes one evening when a sudden knock at the door announces the arrival of an ominous police inspector who is investigating the horrific death of a poor working-class woman in mysterious circumstances that seems to implicate each member of the family gathered at the dining table. The tone of the play darkens with each passing minute until the nerve-wracking climax offers a faint hint of light and a possible glimmer of redemption.

Priestley was a passionate believer in social change including universal human rights, trade unions, equality, fair pay, female emancipation, and he also questioned the use of war which resulted in mass killings on an industrial scale.

Some of these themes are explored by the playwright in his timeless play which continues to be performed on film (there are around eight movies, including two Bengali adaptations), various television adaptations, countless radio versions, and quite a few theatre adaptations.

The adaptation currently touring theatres around the country is directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) and was first performed at The National Theatre in London where it caused a sensation that continues to be felt to this day.

This pioneering production, with astounding designs by Ian MacNeil, is the kind that not only does justice to Priestley’s groundbreaking play but also taps into stagecraft in such a way that even seasoned theatre audiences will gasp at the stunning set designs which poetically evoke the themes at the heart of the drama.

Take, for example, the depiction of the opulent and warmly lit house of the rich family as they wine and dine in luxury. The home, which opens up like a doll house, is built upon stilts. These rich folk are so class conscious that even their rich residence refuses to touch the floor of the dirty street outside. They are literally above the poor and wretched of the earth. The poverty stricken working-class haunt the cold steely-blue world outside the raised building. The street is cloaked in inky shadows and evening mist.

The structure of the house, especially the spindly and weak foundation, is akin to the abode of Baba-Yaga the witch from spooky Slavic fairy tales whose hut is held up by giant chicken legs.

The writer – and this production – clearly states that the hypocritical world of the rich elite (including monsters from folklore) is held up by a flimsy and fantastical philosophy that one day is fated to fail and fall.  

The aloof and blinkered bourgeois family, with their cloak of antiquated respectability and strict social class and moral structure, think they are impervious to the law. Little do they realise that their ivory tower is about to be breached by a law higher than any one of them could have imagined. Inspector Goole (or should that be Ghoul?) is an avenging angel who has come bearing a reckoning that will shatter the fragile illusion of superiority held by the ruling class over the poor and impoverished.

This production uses elements such as earth, air, fire and water to transform the message of the play into a damning denouncement of those who have forsaken their fellow human beings in favour of wealth and elitism.

The characters may be plumbed in finery as they sit and eat their delicious feast but as the evening draws to a close some of their clothes have been tossed aside, garments and jewellery discarded as their flawed lives and souls dispense with falsities - and social masks - and the family are finally exposed to the stark truth which they have been avoiding.

As the chasm between the rich and poor continues to widen in our modern world, and as echoes of war and the rise of divisive voices begins to infect and fracture society, this play – and especially this particular incarnation of the play – begins to feel eerily prophetic.

The parting message of the drama is a poignant plea to the audience to remember that each person on this planet is part of a much larger family, and invisible cosmic threads link us all. When one person is hurt or dies somewhere - no matter how remote the link is between Us and Them - we all inadvertently share a part in their misery or demise. Our humanity is s shared experience regardless of who we are and where we hail from.

An Inspector Calls is more timely than ever before, and this poetic production takes theatre into realms that engage the human heart.

Verdict: ★★★★★

An Inspector Calls is now playing at The Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham until Saturday 10th May