An inspector calls is one of those plays you study at school. By study, I mean I remember spending months and months trawling through the pages of my well thumbed exercise book and extracting meaning and motive from every last syllable until the whole point was lost.
There is a truth that repetition over time makes the subject meaningless. That was, in my teenage and current opinion the GCSE English literature syllabus ruining the fun of it for everyone else.
With this in mind, as well as the horrors of my middle aged English teacher insisting that practically all literature (and I assume all art as a whole) was about sex (or the lack thereof). It felt intriguing to be on familiar ground at the theatre royal for the 2015 touring show of An Inspector Calls.
The show begins and I am transfixed by the stage set. It is amazing both in its functionality and its beauty, adding an atmosphere and a transportive grace to the play.
We are sent back to 1912 and the disparity of the few haves with the many have nots. We are shown in unabashed focus of the divide of the poor and the wealthy (a theme that resonates today more than ever).
Looking back at the performance I can honestly say it was thrilling to watch. The set enriched the piece amazingly well. The cast were superb in the delivery giving the dialogue bite and vigour that captured the audiences attention and kept it griped, vicelike until the curtain came down.
The actors throughout the piece breathed new life into their old established characters, Liam Brennan as the inspector gave a masculine yet heartfelt performance which worked well in contrast to the Birling families pomposity.
I specially enjoyed the dry wit of Caroline Wilde as Sybil and the inspectors interaction with Tim Woodward’s Arthur Birling was intense and the alpha male as if two silverbacks were going to war.
To conclude, this version of An inspector calls is by far my favourite. Having watched versions over the years on TV and film I felt somehow the work of JB Preistley would still be forever tainted by memories of cramped classrooms and monotonous study.
Thankfully the play is reborn, fresh and exciting. The rapturous applause as the cast took their well deserved bows confirmed this for me perfectly.
An inspector calls is at the theatre royal until the 14th of November, don’t miss it!
Tickets available at www.trch.co.uk
Review by Adam Willis
