Direct from its triumphant success in the West End last year, Stephen Daldry’s multi award-winning production of J.B Priestley’s classic thriller An Inspector Calls opens at Leicester's Curve this autumn (22 Sept – 1 Oct) ahead of a major UK tour.
Director Stephen Daldry, now triple Oscar nominated for his films The Reader (starring Kate Winslett, Ralph Fiennes), The Hours (starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore) and Billy Elliot (starring Jamie Bell), won his first major directorial success in 1992 when his visionary revival of J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls opened at the National Theatre to outstanding critical acclaim. Featuring Ian MacNeil’s ingenious designs, a sweeping score by Oscar-winning composer Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare in Love) and atmospheric lighting by Rick Fisher, the production has received an unprecedented string of awards – a total of 19 major international awards - including the Olivier Award for Best Revival, Best Director and Best Designer and the Tony Award on Broadway for Best Revival, Best Director and Best Lighting.
The show now embarks on a new UK tour, starting at Curve. This follows its phenomenal success in the West End last year where, once again, the production proved a smash hit with critics and audiences alike. Winning a host of new five-star reviews and enjoying sell-out performances, the production extended its initial eight-week run at the Novello Theatre with a further sixteen weeks at the Wyndham’s, playing until March 2010.
The 2011-12 UK tour cast includes: Tom Mannion as Inspector Goole, Geoff Leesley as Mr Birling, Karen Archer as Mrs Birling, Kelly Hotten as Sheila Birling, Henry Gilbert as Eric Birling, John Sackville as Gerald and Janie Booth as Edna.
Written at the end of the Second World War and set before the First, J.B Priestley’s An Inspector Calls is a compelling and haunting thriller. The story begins when the mysterious Inspector Goole calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family home. Their peaceful dinner party is shattered by his investigations into the death of a young woman whom each of them in turn has exploited. His startling revelations not only shatter the very foundations of their lives but challenge us all to examine our consciences. Daldry’s visionary production unites the 1912 setting with the time it was written in 1945, transferring the play to a dramatic cobblestone war-torn wasteland, where the Edwardian Birling family home looms, resting on stilts.
