Another extremely melodramatic character was Sheila Birling, played by Sarah Berger, She acted considerably well up until the point where the inspector arrived and began to question Gerald about his involvement with Daisy Renton, from this point on I believe that Sarah’s performance gradually deteriorated due to the substantial amount of hyperbolic gestures that she was making, she showed great enthusiasm in parts of the play, yet sometimes I feel that she was maybe slightly too enthusiastic, especially when a part arose where she had to express shock and devastation.
As a result of her overreacting, parts of the production looked fake and it made it out to be more like a comedy than a morality play/detective thriller.
The Inspector, Played by Bernard Hepton, is the next person to whom my attention was drawn, as I’m sure that it is completely obvious to anyone who has seen this televised production that the inspector is not at all what he seems.
Bernard Hepton plays the role of the inspector very well he conveys the impression that he is a normal police officer, yet to look at him it exudes an air of suspicion as to his true identity.
Mr Birlings character was not played exceedingly well at the beginning of the production yet as it progressed so did Nigel Davenport’s performance. In my opinion Nigel achieved everything that was essential in order to make the character of Mr Birling seem real. His accent was just that of what I had imagined it to be and his voice was very dominating, towards his family and that of the inspector as if he was letting them know that he was not going to openly admit that he had a part in Eva Smiths death without clearly putting his views across. The gestures that he made with his hands were also an indication to me that he was really getting into the role of Mr Birling in order to enhance his performance and achieve the task that he was set out to do.
I was not altogether impressed by the role of Eric, Played by David Sybley, as he was supposed to be the youngest character in the whole play, although my personal view is that he looked considerably older than Gerald Croft, Played by Simon Ward, who was meant to be around 10 years older than Eric.
I don’t feel that Eric was allowed to show off his acting ability to its fullest. I don’t think that Eric’s ability to act drunk was very good. I felt that he could have put in a bit more effort to actually convince us that he does enjoy drinking in substantial amounts at a time, yet refuses to believe that he has a drink problem. If we set aside the bad points in the acting it can be justified by the layout of the production. Firstly as you watch the play you notice that the stage direction and props are very well established as they set the scene perfectly. It makes it known to all that the Birling family are a considerably wealthy family and the time period in which it is all situated, in this case it’s the early 1900’s. I was particularly impressed with the effective yet subtle use of the dining table. It portrayed wealth but not only did it do that it also showed divisions between the family as the play continued an example of which was, when Sheila and Mrs Birling were arguing about how stubborn Mrs Birling was being by not admitting the fact that even she had some part to play in the events leading up to Eva Smith/Daisy Renton’s death. The division was clear between the two of them as Sheila sat at the head of one end of the table giving her views to her mother whilst Mrs Birling was sat at the other arguing her case against every little thing that Sheila said to her.
Not only was there an effective use of the table the costumes were exceptionally good in my opinion, as they gave a slight indication as to what each character was like, especially in the case of the women. For example at the beginning of the play Sheila Birling is sat at the dining table dressed in cream, this indicates that she is pure, wholesome and somewhat naive as to what goes on the real world, she also wears little pink bows all over her hair I think this signifies that she is not yet a woman and that she still has her childlike ways still inside her. However when we come to Mrs Birling she is all dressed in black, this tells us that she is a cold and stern woman who is very strong minded and maybe a slight bit stubborn, it shows no indication of purity at all. It also shows the generation gap that Priestley develops later on in the play.
Yet another bad point was noticeable within the camera shots the head camera man (Peter Ware) did not show any indication whatsoever that he knew what he was doing with the camera, even though I understand the concept of what he was trying to do the zoom shots that he did were very poor they looked frivolous and frenetic. I think that he may have been able to find a way of showing that something dramatic had happened and the air of surprise on peoples faces without making it look like an amateur video recording of a Victorian melodrama.
In conclusion I think that ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J.B Priestley is a work of a genius yet the BBC production made a total mockery of by the fact that it was not at all as J.B Priestley had intended it to be. However I am really glad that I have watched it, it was a good experience for me as it has shown me that the play is more than just a detective thriller and that there can actually be a funny side to it. Even if that is not what is originally intended, and i'm sure that there will always be a sense of mystery about this play, no matter how or where it is produced.
