David Hunt Stafford and Mouchette van Helsdingen (Photo by Gabriel Tejeda-Benitez)
Reviewed by Joel Beers
Theatre 40
Through December 14
RECOMMENDED
An Inspector Calls, the 1945 play by J.B. Priestley — a playwright, novelist, essayist and broadcaster known for advocating social reform — strikes a rare balance between moral lesson and sheer entertainment.
Set in 1910 England, the play follows the well-to-do Birling family as their celebratory evening is upended by the mysterious Inspector Goole. As Goole interrogates each family member about the suicide of a young woman, hidden secrets and selfish choices surface, exposing the family’s complicity and forcing them — and the audience — to grapple with questions of social responsibility, guilt and the ripple effects of their actions.
It’s openly didactic in intent, aiming to deliver a moral and social message, but Priestley delivers it with the flair of a classic mystery detective story. True to the genre, the play offers a couple of startling twists, including the jaw-dropping final line that raises far more questions than it answers.
Director Cate Caplin and her polished cast nail the moral weight and the suspenseful storytelling, resulting in a production that is both civics lesson — if not a downright admonishment to the audience — and enthralling yarn.
And it does this in a way few, if any, productions have attempted: by casting a woman in the lead role of Inspector Goole.
Just about everything surrounding this play — and Goole’s character — is culturally coded as masculine. That begins with authorial intent. Priestley’s stage directions describe the inspector as “giving the impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness,” speaking “carefully, weightily,” and possessing the “disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person” before addressing them. Add to that the era in which the play was written and set, the ingrained patriarchy of the Birling household, and the inspector’s tone of superior judgment when he dresses down the roost’s ruler, Mr. Birling.
Enter Mouchette van Helsdingen, whose performance as Goole is as awesome as her name. She is cool, calm and collected, conveying authority and moral superiority both in presence and in stature — at around six feet she towers over the rest of the cast — yet she also brings charm and a hint of playfulness. Dressed in a smart, striped navy blue outfit with a thin black tie, she borders on the androgynous, but her earrings and soft-brimmed black hat signal something distinctly feminine.
It’s a commanding performance with nuance and personality, and any question a viewer may have about why she was cast in this role should be replaced by a far better one: why isn’t a woman cast in this role more often? After all, the suicide of a young woman is the moral center of the story. Who better to carry the victim’s humanity than an actor who can channel both sympathy for her and bristling anger at the upper-class family who viewed her as disposable?
It’s a bravura casting choice. Less satisfying is the show’s other unconventional element — ghost sequences involving the victim as each family member is interrogated. The sequences definitely add theatricality, but the repeated fixed image of the woman in every encounter undercuts one of the major twists that lands after the inspector leaves.
Quibbles aside, Caplin’s staging, van Helsdingen’s knockout performance and the cast’s collective precision make this Inspector less a polite revival and more a sharp elbow to the ribs. It reminds us that Priestley didn’t write a comfortable play — he wrote a warning. And judging by the gasps following that final line, it still provokes astonishment 80 years after first staged.
If the point of An Inspector Calls is to remind us that actions echo far beyond our own little bubbles, this production drives that home with force and flair. It’s unsettling, it’s stylish, it’s occasionally odd — and it absolutely refuses to let the audience off the hook. Priestley would’ve approved. Maybe even smiled. Briefly.
Theatre 40 at Beverly Hills High School, 241 S. Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills. Thurs.-Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. Runtime: 1 hours and 50 minutes with a 10-minute intermission. https://theatre40.org/product/an-inspector-calls/
