J.B.Priestley’s play, An Inspector Calls

Dear Mr. Anthony Hopkins

Thank you for accepting the role of the inspector in my production of
J B Priestley’s play ‘An inspector calls’.

The play is set in the early 1912 before the First World War in a time when there was a relative period of economic and social stability. The play is set in a fictous North Midlands industrial city of Brumley.

The play is about a family, the Birlings who are celebrating their daughter’s engagement to a young man called Gerald Croft whose family also own a business or factory similar to that of the Birling family business. Gerald Croft and all the members in the Birling family which include Arthur and Sybil Birling (the parents), Eric Birling (their son) and their daughter Sheila Birling who is engaged with Gerald
Croft are all sat round at the their dining table having a dinner party to celebrate the fact that Sheila and Gerald are both engaged.
Just after Mr.Birling has completed his pompous speech, there dinner party is interrupted by the arrival of Inspector Goole, who announces that he is making enquiries about a young woman called Eva Smith who has committed suicide by swallowing disinfectant. The Inspector first shows Mr Birling a picture of Eva Smith that Mr Birling recognises straight away because Eva Smith use to work in Mr.Birling’s factory, but was sacked because she was one of the ringleaders of a strike that was demanding a pay rise. Mr Birling tries to talk the Inspector in to leaving them alone by making threats to him and trying to impress him with his high social status. The Inspector is still determined to interrogate all of them hinting to them that they are all connected to
Eva Smith’s death. He talks to Sheila next telling her that Eva Smith use to work at a big well known shop called Millward but lost her job due to a complaint that was made by a jealous and petty-minded customer, that customer was Sheila who now feels very guilty about Eva
Smith’s death. We now also find that Gerald was also involved with Eva
Smith, who at that time went by the name Daisy Renton. Gerald had had an affair with Daisy Renton (alias Eva Smith) the previous summer; she was his mistress until it no more suited him. Sheila admires Gerald for his honesty but doesn’t seem to keen on continuing her relationship with Gerald, Gerald d leaves the house to go for a walk.
Mrs Birling is then also found to be responsible for Eva Smith’s death since Mrs. Birling refused to help Eva Smith through the Brumley