The Stage

An Inspector Calls

Published Monday 28 September 2009 at 10:40 by John Thaxter

A smug Edwardian family, the Birlings, are holding an engagement dinner party when a police inspector arrives to make enquiries into the death of a young girl who has committed suicide.

Priestley set the action in 1912, but his detective figure belongs to the mid-forties, when the play was written, while its plea for a more caring, compassionate society was intended to support Labour in the 1945 election.

A half-century later at the National, Stephen Daldry’s transforming revival was seen as a comment on Margaret Thatcher’s assertion that “There is no such thing as society…”. Now, after several thousand performances in London and around the globe, it returns to the West End with a new cast and a very different political backdrop, while perfectly preserving the 1992 Lyttelton theatre experience.

The red plush curtain still rises on a Blitz-shattered street in pouring rain as London urchins lark about, the family go through their ritual interrogations with anguish or self-justification, while the closing moment remains a thrilling coup de theatre.

There are beautifully observed performances by David Roper and Sandra Duncan as the outraged parents, while Marianne Oldham gives a definitive portrayal of their daughter Sheila, the only character to go through a process of renewal from giggling fiancee to true redemption.

But for me at least, having previously seen three of the dozens of actors who played the titular role, Nicholas Woodeson turns the inspector into a finger-wagging, angry avenger, ever ready to rush forward with an accusation, in place of the menacing stillness - turning to righteous indignation at key moments - that was such a feature of previous interpretations. This surely also undermines our acceptance of the inspector as a genuine cop.