Theatre Royal, Nottingham – until Saturday 15 February 2020
Reviewed by Boo Wakefield
4****
A performance I arrived at thinking it was going to be an Agatha Christie-esque “Who Dunnit” and which I left with the question of Who caused it? on my mind hours afterward. My daughter, like most of the audience, studied An Inspector Calls at GCSE level. This was her second time viewing the production and she said, “it got better and better as I watched”. I haven’t heard her talk this animatedly about a production before, just going to show what an impact this performance made on her as well as all the students in the audience.
Stephen Daldry’s 28-year-old production portrays the struggles of family and society using dramatic lighting, immersive set pieces and an incredible cast. The introductory scene had young children running around the broken and damaged street, which reflected well on the post war era the play was set and written in. Rowan O’Driscoll-Besh’s performance as a Young Boy displayed a powerful image of the innocence and curiosity of the new and vulnerable generation. In comparison, Christine Kavanagh and Jeffrey Harmer’s portrayals of the ghastly Mr and Mrs Birling where fantastic at putting across J. B. Priestley’s idea that the older generation where becoming more and more desperate and power hungry as the post war era ensued.
Kavanagh’s entrance as Sybil Birling was so impressive as she stood in a doorway, glittering in the fantastic pearl jewelry that stood out against the glorious red gown she was wearing. Huge hats off to the costume team and their fantastic work on the outfits, managing to display both the era as well as the characters positions in society. The plainly dressed housemaid Edna, shown through Emma Carter stood out. She seemed to be everywhere and nowhere all throughout the play, eavesdropping and smirking at her employer’s obvious discomfort adding a drop of humor into the more serious aspects of the play.
Beside the fantastic acting there was the incredible lighting and set that has hardly changed since the original production in 1992. Comprised of what seems to be an oversized dolls house atop cobbled streets and rubble, the set presents a post war image of a run-down world in which the Birling’s are trying to elevate themselves above. The use on bright lighting against water and mist falling from above created an acute recreation of the dreary weather of England but also produced a pathetic fallacy as it reflected and emphasized the negative and broken emotions of the Birlings in the wake of the Inspectors grueling interrogations. The ‘oversized dolls house’, as I so crudely named it, was the eye drawing aspect of the whole production. Beginning closed, the house opened quite literally as the performance ensued, baring its inhabitants to the whole audience. Its dramatic effect didn’t stop there though, later in the play accompanied by the bright lighting and rain the house tipped forward, dropping and smashing all the set pieces from inside it. To add to the effect sparks flew from the lamps inside the room, making the whole thing look just a broken as the rest of the world around it. This whole action, it is safe to say, shocked the whole audience as well as myself and really put across the idea that the characters lives were falling apart very effectively.
Overall, a play that has stood the tests of time thoroughly entertaining us all. A thought-provoking and entertaining evening.