An Inspector Calls

★★★★☆    Worryingly compelling

King’s Theatre: Tue 8 –Sat 12 Sept 2019
Review by Hugh Simpson

The revival of a much-garlanded take on J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls at the King’s is wonderfully staged, relevant and more than a little troubling.

Huge numbers have seen Stephen Daldry’s production since it debuted at the UK National Theatre in 1992 and rescued the play from a reputation as a staid rep warhorse, but it is still ridiculously fresh. The play bears repetition more than most; if some of it is a shade preachy, it is superbly constructed, horribly clever and surprisingly subtle.

Liam Brennan. Pic: Tristram Kenton

And yes, this is the version with that house on stilts. Ian MacNeil’s design is still a thing of wonder and lends itself to a coup de théâtre that never gets old – one that, like a great deal else about the production, works best from the stalls but is pretty good from anywhere. Daldry’s staging, collapsing the 1912 setting of the play into its 1945 date of composition, remains an intellectually rigorous and visually intriguing take on the play.

Priestley’s tricksy story of the Inspector who visits the complacently partying Birling family to ask them about the painful death of young Eva Smith – to which they are all connected – remains horribly pertinent. Indeed, it is even more sadly tragic now than it was when this incarnation won deserved awards.

dominates

While there are some things about it that are starting to creak, the portrayal of the mysterious Inspector Goole is not one of them. From the moment Liam Brennan (whose demob suit marks him out as one of the 40s cohort) starts his inquisition, he dominates proceedings.

Liam Brennan and the cast. Pic: Tristram Kenton

Brennan has done some very fine things in the past, but probably nothing to match this. It is entirely fitting that at times he speaks with an authoritative, almost oracular tone, while at other moments the lines appear to be occurring to him as he speaks them. It is a magnificent performance, humorous, sympathetic and yet somehow otherworldly, and even involving some carefully judged breaking of the fourth wall. If you didn’t know better you would swear the role had been written specifically for him.

This does mean that when he is not onstage it becomes somewhat less effective. However, Christine Kavanagh’s defiantly high-handed Mrs Birling is suitably revolting, while Chloe Orrock’s Sheila is interestingly multi-faceted, with the character genuinely appearing to grow.

Some of the non-realistic, almost expressionistic elements of the production continue to compel. These undoubtedly include that set, Rick Fraser’s spooky lighting, the assorted urchins, the moving of the maid Edna (the tremendous Linda Beckett) to a spatially and morally central position, and the borrowing of the hair-raising stabs of Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo score. Others do not wear so well.

effective

Jeffrey Harmer’s Mr Birling is too much of a blustering blowhard, while Ryan Saunders (Eric Birling) and Alasdair Buchan (Sheila’s fiancé Gerald) are also a touch on the broad side. The performances are all effective, but the opening and closing scenes now approach cackling melodrama.

Nevertheless, it is all incredibly involving, meaning that for once that a no-interval production never feels too long.

Christine Kavanagh Jeff Harmer and Chloe Orrock. Pic: Tristram Kenton

What is most striking is the way the Inspector’s parting monologue – the unavoidable heart of proceedings, that has been done as a defiant call to action – comes from a position of despair. Like everything else Brennan does here, it is quite brilliant, but it is noticeable how the concerns about responsibility and co-operation Priestley was addressing as the world recovered from war have shifted beneath our feet.

Notions of community, of treating any less fortunate than ourselves with simple humanity rather than blaming them, or indeed the whole idea that public life and public discourse could be an attempt to locate and promote our better selves – these are just more things we have long since stacked on the bonfire. And if (as seems entirely plausible) the Birlings are already in a living purgatory, this ever-magnetic production reminds us we have been hell-bent on joining them there.

Running time 1 hour 50 minutes (no interval)
King’s Theatre, 2 Leven St, EH3 9LQ
Tuesday 8 – Saturday 12 October 2019
Daily at 7.30 pm; Matinees Wed and Sat at 2.30 pm
Information and tickets: https://www.capitaltheatres.com/whats-on/an-inspector-calls

ENDS

Tags: Alasdair Buchan, Chloe Orrock, Christine Kavanagh, Hugh Simpson, Ian MacNeil, J.B. Priestley, Jeffrey Harmer, King's Theatre, Liam Brennan, Linda Beckett, Review, Rick Fraser, Ryan Saunders, Stephen Daldry, Theatre