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An Inspector Calls Professional Productions

Compare Priestley’s text with named professional interpretations.

Stephen Daldry and Ian MacNeil

This production is valuable because it does not simply reproduce Priestley’s dining-room stage directions. Ian MacNeil places a small, fragile Birling house above a public street, making the family’s private behaviour visible within a wider society.

Three approaches to staging An Inspector CallsA naturalistic box set, an elevated fragile house above a public street, and an open shared stage.Naturalistic roomPublic street / fragile houseOpen shared spacePrivacy and pressureFamily observed by societyAudience shares responsibility

What to investigate

  • The contrast between the enclosed house and public street.
  • The use of scale, weather and darkness.
  • The Inspector’s relationship with the audience and surrounding community.
  • How the house changes as the family’s certainty collapses.

Student questions

  1. Which choices come from Priestley, and which belong to this production?
  2. How does public exposure strengthen the theme of collective responsibility?
  3. Design a different set that achieves the same dramatic purpose without copying MacNeil.
Official production pageEducation resourcesStark Drama set-design guide
Official photography: link only

The official production images are protected. Stark Drama does not reproduce them without permission.

CC BY-SA comparison image

View the licensed OVO Theatre photograph. Sheila recognises Eva’s photograph while Gerald looks on.

Michael Maggs, “An Inspector Calls, OVO Theatre, St Albans, 2012”, CC BY-SA 3.0. The file is linked rather than rehosted in this package; its licence permits reuse with attribution and ShareAlike conditions.