"Inspector offers thrilling expose on the folly of greed"

Review by Ted Hill
Ladysmith Chronicle

Chemainus Theatre tackles class warfare and wins, our reviewer discovers, in the theatre's current production of JB Priestly's An Inspector Calls.

Winston Churchill once suggested that powerful nations, and the powerful that ruled, should be "like rich men dwelling at peace within their habitations" - free from want and fear.

It is only fitting JB Priestly, the man second only to Churchill in national popularity after the Second World War, answered the arrogance of raw power with An Inspector Calls, a chilling allegory of how the death of a simple girl warns of a greedy culture barreling towards its own demise.

In its latest offering, the Chemainus Theatre Festival manages to craft the thematically complicated Inspector into a superbly riveting, tension-filled thriller. Director Jeremy Tow tackles class warfare at an off-angle - the skewed set and the haunting soundtrack complement emotionally charged performances.

The stage is set in 1912 Edwardian England where the wealthy Arthur and Sybil Birling (John Lowe and Donna White) are celebrating the engagement of their daughter Sheila to the upper crust Gerald Croft (Samantha Madely and Julius Chapple).

Arthur boasts of humanity's "rapid progress everywhere" and that "war is impossible" (remember, they are pre-WWI). He admonishes Gerald and son Eric (David Snider) that "a man must make his own way" and to "mind no business other than of his own" - foreshadowing as blunt as a brick.

Inspector Goole (Bernard Cuffling) disrupts the peace with news of the grim suicide of menial labourer Eva Smith (Emma Miller). Goole proceeds to methodically expose each family member as acting callously toward Eva, compounding her misfortune and provoking her death.

The strength of the cast more than balances out the lack of subtlety in the message and a script that seems plodding at times. Sequential interrogations by Goole ratchet up the tension, but are smartly cut with eerie images of young Eva.

Cuffling, as the Inspector, seems to float among the players, a subdued, dour figure that doesn't release the fury of his presence until well into the play.

Lowe is masterful as personifying the wealthy, never deviating from justifying his actions.

He doesn't go overboard with his panic to avoid scandal, and is funny while worrying about losing an upcoming knighthood.

White, the matriarch, steals the stage a few times with displays of sheer annoyance. The dead girl is such an inconvenience! Lowe and White do a wonderful job personifying the moneyed class (and the older generation) scrambling to save their skins.

Madely, as Sheila the daughter, is perfect as her fear is revealed and her cloistered world (and fiancee) is exposed as cruel and empty. Snider, as roguish son Eric, is the second half of the sub-theme of the generational divide - the young demonstrate genuine guilt while the old are only concerned about social jockeying.

In past performances, Snider tends to be the over-the-top gag man, but with Inspector, he shows the true depth of his dramatic talents.

Chapple, as Gerald the fiancee, deftly bridges the family divide. He shines while using sheer logic to deny the existence of Eva, and therefore denies social inequity.

Denial and loss of perspective are powerful themes threading through the play, resonating from Chapple and Lowe, but also from the stage set itself. Its dark, crooked perspective is an apt warning to the folly of greed.

JB Priestly didn't quibble about his message, and the Chemainus Theatre delivered it with grace: The class system and the massively uneven distribution of wealth is a symptom of a sick society.

"There are millions of Eva and John Smiths alive. We don't live alone, we are members of one body ... we are responsible for each other," warns Goole. "If men do not learn they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish." Rich men dwelling at peace within their habitations take heed.