An Inspector Calls by JB Priestley at The Garrick Theatre

Authors Avatar

‘An Inspector Calls’ by JB Priestley at The Garrick Theatre 16.5.00

The set of this play is under a proscenium arch and as this is a Victorian theatre the curtains rise up instead of going to each side. Especially for this production there is an added bit of stage at the front with twisted, bent floorboards with a trap door in. The bent floorboards represent the damage from bombs as outside is set in the 1940s. At one end of the extra bit of stage there is a phone box, this is used for the characters to use instead of in the house. At the other end of the stage there is a world war two radio, the little boy uses this to change the mood of the music throughout the play. A cyclorama surrounds the back of the stage, it is a screen at the back which is in a semi-circle and on it clouds are painted, behind it there are lights which change the mood and time of day of the production, this is reflected by the mirrors either side of the cyclorama which add depth to the stage. The main piece of the stage is the house in which the Birlings live it seems to have risen out of the ground, but most of the action does not take place there but on the cobbled street below next to an old-fashioned lamppost. There are holes in the set floor which seem as though bombs have be dropped down and at the back of the stage there is a small house which gives the set some perspective.

Join now!

Throughout the production the set goes though changes. One of which is the Birlings house tipping over and everything falling out of it, this is symbolic of the crumbling of their firm steady life, this happens when the family finds out that Eric, the son, got Daisy Renton pregnant. After a while the house repositions itself into a upright position, this occurs when Mr. Birling gets off the phone to the nurses station and finds out that no one committed suicide that night and so the house going back symbolizes their life getting back to normal but it will never ...

This is a preview of the whole essay