The Complete Plays: An Inspector Calls (1957)

Production Details
Title:
Author:
New Play:

Venue:
Location:
Staging:
An Inspector Calls
J.B. Priestley
No

The Library Theatre, Scarborough
Concert Room
Round
First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
11 July 1957
11 July 1957
28 August 1957
Company Details
Director:

Stage Manager:
Assistant Stage Manager:
Assistant Stage Manager:
Clive Goodwin

Alan Ayckbourn
Anne Taylor
John Smith
Character
Arthur Birling
Gerald Croft
Sheila Birling
Sybil Birling
Eric Birling
Inspector Goole
Edna
Actor
Malcolm Rogers
Frank Mills
Shirley Jacobs
Betty Cardno
Alan Ayckbourn
Rodney Wood
Anne Taylor
Why is this play significant?
It marked the acting debut with the company of a young acting stage manager (an assistant stage manager with acting roles) called Alan Ayckbourn, who had joined Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre that season. The rest, as they say, is history. It also marked the first professional in-the-round production of the play in the UK.
Notes
○ An Inspector Calls marked the acting debut of Alan Ayckbourn - later the company's Artistic Director - at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough. At the time he was employed as an Acting Stage Manager (a stage manager with limited acting responsibilities).
○ The author of the play, J.B. Priestley, was an early advocate of theatre in the round and had been in contact with Studio Theatre Ltd's Artistic Director Stephen Joseph about the company in Scarborough.
○ This was the first of several productions of J.B. Priestley’s plays staged by the company over the decades.
○ An Inspector Calls was performed without an interval.
Links
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd. Image copyright: Scarborough Theatre Trust