Explain how different staging of 'An Inspector Calls' can make the audience react to the play differently.

Authors Avatar

Explain how different staging of ‘An Inspector Calls’ can make the audience react to the play differently.

The way a play is staged is very important to how the audience views the story and the characters.  

We have studied 3 versions of ‘An Inspector calls’.  The original 1946 production, 1954 film version and the 1992 Royal National Theatre production.

I will take each of these in turn and see how they are staged differently and how this affects the audience’s perception of the characters.

The first production I will look at is the original 1946 production.  When the curtain rises it is performed as written in the book, this means that we are immediately in the Birlings’ dining room.  There is an engagement party in progress, we are let in on their conversation, this makes us feel like part of the family – but we are still on the outside to a certain extent.  When the Inspector arrives, he interrupts the family’s party and we feel as if our evening has been disturbed as well.

Join now!

We only hear about Eva Smith/Daisy Renton in this version when the Inspector questions each character.  This interrogation causes a whole story to unfold about her character but we never actually meet her in person.  In spite of not meeting her, we still feel quite sorry for her as we hear what happened.

In the 1954 film version, once again we are in the dining room.  I think that we as the audience feel more a part of the family than we do in the original version as the camera shot is at eye-level with the other characters. ...

This is a preview of the whole essay