An Inspector Calls to open at the Playhouse Theatre in November

Stephen Daldry’s production of JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls will open at the Playhouse Theatre on 10th November 2016 (previews from 4th November) for a limited run to 4th February 2017.

This will mark the 70th anniversary of the first UK staging of the play and the 25th anniversary of its first appearance at the National Theatre. 

Daldry says: Each time we have mounted this production it seems more relevant than the last, with the refugee crisis, the European referendum debate and American elections, you can’t fail to see the genius of Priestley’s writing. When we created this production, Thatcher wanted the country to follow ‘Edwardian Values’, we set out to bring the production to audiences in a way that would talk directly to them, holding a mirror up to society and indeed the audience themselves. 

"Whilst we believe we achieved that, it’s clear from our recent tour that there’s a younger media savvy generation who identify with Eva Smith more than the Birling family. Perhaps an indication of the growing void between wealth and poverty. When we performed at the Orchard theatre in Dartford last September, the world had just learned of the desperate tragedy of Aylan Kurdi, ‘One Eva Smith has gone-but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do...."

Design is by Ian MacNeil with lighting by Rick Fisher, compositions by Stephen Warbeck and associate direction by Julian Webber.