I was first introduced to An Inspector Calls several years ago when my roommate recommended this new flick on Amazon starring the guy from Harry Potter (David Thewlis) as the Inspector. I knew nothing of the story and am not sure why I even watched it at all, except that she insisted it was so good. The story left me speechless – even stunned. I knew I’d discovered a hidden gem.
J.B. Priestley’s best known play could be treated as a dark comedy, a fable, a psychological thriller – even socialist propaganda, back when it premiered at the dawn of the Soviet era. I believe at its core it’s a moral mystery, an unraveling disclosure of the human heart, tied up in the trappings of a who-dun-it. A film noir – but one where it’s the intimate, legal crimes that loom large.
The story juxtaposes the truths of human guilt and human value, placing them on the backdrop of a self-satisfied society convinced of its own progress (both materially and morally), unaware of the rottenness in its alleys or the World War on its doorstep, ready to blow the Gilded Age of the Titanic to smithereens. Each member of the Birling household captures something different about the human mindset with six different perspectives and ages. The story plays with light and dark, reality and fantasy, innocence and judgment – themes we explore in our staging, lighting, music, and design. The show’s tone has continually brought to my mind the tightening of a screw, the winding of a coil, a string stretched to the breaking point as the Inspector pursues his case – squeezing deeply personal deeds out of the shadows into the light. It’s rather frightening – but you can’t turn away.
I hope you come away tonight having enjoyed a good mystery, complete with all the reveals and twists and turns, and a good drama filled with intrigue and longing, but also a thoughtful examination of human nature and responsibility – both writ large and quite individual. I think this is a story we need today in a pandemic age when it’s so easy to excuse ourselves like Cain (“Am I my brother’s keeper?”) and diminish the humanity of individuals on the other side of a screen, or a Twitter handle, or a mask. May we be ready to meet our Inspector – who will tolerate nothing but the simple, unexcused, raw truth – having dared to ask our souls his questions ourselves, before meeting his searching gaze.
~ Grace and John
