Play review: An Inspector Calls (1945) by J. B. Priestly.

For today's blog post, I am taking you back towards the twentieth century, just as the second world war had ended. This morality play was written in 1945 but set in 1912. Between this time, people had suffered through two world wars and witnessed the sinking of the titanic. So when Arthur Birling drags on about things that he claims will happen and do, immediately it made me think is this a man we can listen to? This is evidence enough that he gets things wrong; one example is when he states the titanic ‘unsinkable’. Of course what he said was not true - we know and audiences in 1945/1946 (when the first UK performance was) knew it was not true. When he said this, it was quite early on in the play and after that, I was not taking him seriously.

Then we have Inspector Goole... Arthur does not like him because he thinks her is calling the shots and ruining what is meant to be a happy moment that he has intruded on. But as the play goes on, he uncovers secrets and I grow to understand how Eva Smith suffered at the hands of that family. Regardless of whether or not anyone in that family is technically guilty or not by law, they all did things that I was disgusted by. They should at least feel guilty for their actions whether or not they committed a crime. I am not here to spoil it all but the ending was confusing so I cannot work out what happened regarding crimes committed... Think of that as you will!

All the characters have their traits and all the characters have their faults. But it makes for a great play that emphasises morality. Though I cannot say it was bad, I was not exactly in love with this play. I could not stand that whole family, especially Arthur Birling. Then there is that creepy inspector who despite after the truth, whatever that is, just is weird. He made me feel uncomfortable by the end. I think all the characters, apart from Edna the maid. This play was odd and I ended up feeling lost, despite the important theme of morality. I am giving An Inspector Calls a 2/10.

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