A review by ed_moore
An Inspector Calls and Other Plays by J.B. Priestley

dark reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“One Eva Smith is 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 sufferings and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives” 

I have reread this play maybe four or five times since studying it at GCSE and now tutoring it, but seem to never have actually logged it so given I just wrapped up a full read through with a student now is a good as a time as any. ‘An Inspector Calls’ was the highlight text back at GCSE and it still holds up, Priestly is absolutely brilliant. It follows the interrogation of the Birling family by Inspector Goole following the suicide of Eva Smith, a suicide they all played a part in causing. Priestly pushes a socialist message through the character of the Inspector and the lessons of the younger generation within the Birling family, his primary aim being to criticise capitalist societal structures. It has so many brilliant lines and the ending still hits even after reading and analysing it so many times. It is a play that  really hasn’t become dry after all these years.