An Inspector Calls and Other Plays (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Priestley, J.B. (1950). Introduction to the Plays of J.B.Priestly. Vol.III. London: Heinemann. pp.xii–xiii. The young girl who allegorically represents the working class in a capitalist society; she doesn't have any lines in the play. All Birling characters behaved in ways that completely altered her life for the worst, culminating in her suicide by drinking some strong disinfectant. The inspector reads her diary before interrogating the Birlings. She is described as being young and pretty, with dark eyes. She also changes her name from Eva Smith to Daisy Renton. The Stephen Daldry production went on a tour of the UK in 2011 and continued to tour into 2020, [22] with Tom Mannion and Liam Brennan among the actors playing Inspector Goole. [23] The production returned to the Playhouse in London's West End in November 2016, with Liam Brennan in the name part. [19] Brennan once again starred as Inspector Goole in a 2022 tour of the UK billed as the production's Thirtiest Anniversary Tour. Woodeson, Nicholas. "Revisiting Inspector Calls". WhatsOnStage.com. Archived from the original on 8 February 2018 . Retrieved 7 February 2018. A policeman interrupts a rich family's dinner to question them about the suicide of a young working-class girl. As their guilty secrets are gradually revealed over the course of the evening, 'An Inspector Calls', J. B. Priestley's most famous play, shows us the terrible consequences of poverty and inequality. The other powerful plays in this collection - 'Time and the Conways', 'I Have Been Here Before' and 'The Linden Tree' - explore time, fate, free will and the effects of war.

These four plays, especially An Inspector Calls, make significant contributions to the 20th-century literature of time.

Summary

Sam: Yes, I can't grumble at all. I have never made much out o' this place, but I've had all I want. I'd ask for naught better - If I had my time over again. Edinburgh Gateway Company (1965), The Twelve Seasons of the Edinburgh Gateway Company, 1953 - 1965, St. Giles Press, Edinburgh, p. 44 J.B.Priestley's fine plays, written & produced for the theatres of the English-speaking world, either side of the Second World War, reflected the parlous state of mind that he found in many of his family, friends & professional acquaintances, partly the effect of the horrific Great War with its disturbing, emotional & social aftermath. The domestic settings of many of his best plays are banal & middle-class, but Priestley had a wonderful talent for angry dialogues that delved deeply into smug assumptions about the class-conscious world of England in those years of economic purgatory & political confusion. J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls and Other Plays collects four groundbreaking works by a master playwright in Penguin Modern Classics.

The Linden Tree', a Chekhov-like study of family relationships, finds the Lindens divided : Professor Linden at sixty-five could retire but is dedicated to teaching at a run-down provincial university. But his wife and rich son Rex have other ideas. . . Aisling Walsh to direct Priestley classic for BBC". Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 30 January 2015. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015 . Retrieved 9 March 2015. The play was produced and performed at the Ferdowsi Theatre in Iran in late 1940s based on the translation by Bozorg Alavi. It was staged in the first season of the Edinburgh Gateway Company in 1953. [14]Tom Baker played Inspector Goole in a 1987 production directed by Peter Dews and designed by Daphne Dare that opened at Theatr Clwyd on 14 April then transferred to London's Westminster Theatre on 13 May 1987. The cast included Pauline Jameson as Sybil Birling, Peter Baldwin as Arthur Birling, Charlotte Attenborough as Sheila Birling, Simon Shepherd as Gerald Croft and Adam Godley as Eric Birling. [16] Birling makes a lengthy speech, not only congratulating Gerald and Sheila, but also commenting on the state of the nation. He predicts prosperity, particularly referring to the example of the “unsinkable” Titanic, which set sail the week earlier. Birling styles himself as a “hard-headed man of business.”