An Inspector Calls

The curtain rises. Rain Pours. Children Run. Music Screeches. 60 years ago, An Inspector Calls would have opened slightly differently. But since its legendary production at the National Theatre in 1992 the staging of this show is another world from the realistic portrayal of 1910's lifestyle format the play had previously been staged with. The house is miniature, almost doll like, and is balance on a huge turntable. In fact the house seams to react to the story being told around it, exploding and tipping over when the family finds its self-exposed and ruined by the events caused by the visiting inspector.

Leading the cast is Tom Mannion as Inspector Goole and radio star Karen Archer as Sirling Birling. Sirling and her husband, Arthur (Geoff Leesley), start of as quite stereotypical 1910's high society men and women, but after their life gets turned on its head by the Inspector's doing, they become distraught and frightened of the past. Mannion is the perfect leading man. He angers the family by interrogating and accusing them for making Eva Smith, a penniless girl who worked for Mr Birling before he fired her, commit suicide by drinking bleach. Archer and Leesley perform their roles well, with some light comic relief coming for Archer later into the play before her life gets changed by the calling police officer.

Her childen include, the golden girl snob, Shelia (Kelly Hotten), a woman who seems to have had everything been given to her on a plate, but for one of her snobbiest comments lost a woman her job, a woman who ended her own life a few years later, Eva Smith. The play begins with the celebration of the engagement of Shelia to Beling's work colleague, Gerald Croft. The Birling's other child is his comical, yet alcoholic son, Eric. Eric is revealed in the interrogation to have made Eva Smith pregnant as well as stolen some money from his father's business to support Eva. The actor Henry Gilbert is captivating every time he is on the stage and plays the part with confidence.

As a whole the music chosen was excellent, and the casting very well selected, especially the tremendous talents of Karen Archer who gave her character spirit and heart, while displaying a fantastic comical manner when reacting to other people's characters. The stage direction was perfect and brings the magic of the West End to us Leicester folk, sitting in on the most exciting new theatres in the country.

The play ends with an ending which neither the audience nor the characters expect and changes the life of everyone caused by the action