An Inspector Calls

Review of the classic play performed by the Royal National Theatre

AN INSPECTOR CALLS
By J. B. Priestley
Royal National Theatre on Tour

J. B. Priestley died in 1984 but his classic play lives after him. The theatrical revival of An Inspector Calls has been playing in London for the past eight years to rapturous reviews, but as it has gone on tour many more of us have the chance to see it.

It is set in the imaginary industrial town of Brumley in 1912 where the divide between rich and poor is very obvious. The play is billed as a 'classic thriller' but it is not what one might expect from such wording. The story focuses on the upper-middle-class family of a factory owner. On the evening they celebrate the daughter's very advantageous engagement, the mysterious Inspector Goole calls at their home and tells them of the tragic suicide of a poverty-stricken young woman. As his questioning proceeds, it becomes excruciatingly clear that every member of the household, including the fiance, has played some part (inadvertently or otherwise) in the descent into degradation and despair which led to her taking her life.

Socialist polemic

J. B. Priestley was a man of socialist convictions and the thrust of the play is a socialist polemic against arrogance and luxury. In his weekly radio broadcasts in 1940 Priestley said: 'My own personal view, for what it's worth, is that we must stop thinking in terms of property and power, and begin thinking in terms of community and creation . . . Property is the old-fashioned way of thinking of a country as a thing, and a collection of things all owned by certain people and constituting property; instead of thinking of the country as the home of a living society, and considering the welfare of that society, the community itself as the first test . . .' How awkward such sentiments now sound in a post-Thatcher/Blairite Britain?

The first production of the play in London took place in 1946, with Ralph Richardson in the role of the inspector. This was amid the full flush of post-war dreams for Clement Atlee's infant Labour Government. The social iniquities and failures of the past had to be swept away and the nation saw a new future. World War II had forged a great sense of community within our country and hopes were very high for what might be achieved.

Convicting the family of their 'sins' against the late Eva Smith, the inspector warns of 'judgement' in 'blood and fire' unless society changes it ways. Perhaps, having set the play in 1912, Priestley had in mind the unthinkable carnage of the First World War, which shattered the structures of class-ridden Edwardian society. The National Theatre's stage set and production are immensely powerful at this point. As the family reels under the inspector's accusations their house literally falls with apocalyptic impact and breaking crockery. At one point the house lights in the theatre are turned on as the inspector addresses the audience like a preacher of divine warnings.

Supernatural dimension

But what is of especial interest to the Christian is that Priestley can only make the play work as he introduces a supernatural dimension to the story which at first we only suspect but reaches a climax in a last telephone call. As such, the story indicates that the social justice for which Priestley argued cannot be sustained or enforced by mere secularism. In fact, the divide which occurs in the family at the end seems to point to a clear spiritual message in the play. It is a message which the New Testament would have very little difficulty interpreting. We will all have to give an account to God as to whether or not we have loved our neighbours as ourselves.

The performance of the National Theatre actors is superb and if you get the opportunity it is well worth seeing.

An Inspector Calls

Review of the classic play performed by the Royal National Theatre

Socialist polemic

Supernatural dimension

JEB

John Benton

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